Job 4
1 THEN ELIPHAZ the Temanite answered and said,2 If we venture to converse with you, will you be offended? Yet who can restrain himself from speaking?3 Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.4 Your words have held firm him who was falling, and you have strengthened the feeble knees.5 But now it is come upon you, and you faint and are grieved; it touches you, and you are troubled and dismayed.6 Is not your [reverent] fear of God your confidence and the integrity and uprightness of your ways your hope?7 Think [earnestly], I beg of you: who, being innocent, ever perished? Or where were those upright and in right standing with God cut off?8 As I myself have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble and mischief reap the same.9 By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.10 The roaring of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken.11 The old and strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered abroad.12 Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it.13 In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,14 Fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones shake.15 Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up!16 [The spirit] stood still, but I could not discern the appearance of it. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, and then I heard a voice, saying,17 Can mortal man be just before God, or be more right than He is? Can a man be pure before his Maker, or be more cleansed than He is? 18 Even in His [heavenly] servants He puts no trust or confidence, and His angels He charges with folly and error--19 How much more those who dwell in houses (bodies) of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed like the moth.20 Between morning and evening they are destroyed; without anyone noticing it they perish forever.21 Is not their tent cord plucked up within them [so that the tent falls]? Do they not die, and that without [acquiring] wisdom?
Job 4
Chapter 4
Eliphaz’s First Response to Job
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied to Job:
2 “Will you be patient and let me say a word?
For who could keep from speaking out?3 “In the past you have encouraged many people;
you have strengthened those who were weak.4 Your words have supported those who were falling;
you encouraged those with shaky knees.5 But now when trouble strikes, you lose heart.
You are terrified when it touches you.6 Doesn’t your reverence for God give you confidence?
Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope?7 “Stop and think! Do the innocent die?
When have the upright been destroyed?8 My experience shows that those who plant trouble
and cultivate evil will harvest the same.9 A breath from God destroys them.
They vanish in a blast of his anger.10 The lion roars and the wildcat snarls,
but the teeth of strong lions will be broken.11 The fierce lion will starve for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness will be scattered.12 “This truth was given to me in secret,
as though whispered in my ear.13 It came to me in a disturbing vision at night,
when people are in a deep sleep.14 Fear gripped me,
and my bones trembled.15 A spiritt swept past my face,
and my hair stood on end.t16 The spirit stopped, but I couldn’t see its shape.
There was a form before my eyes.
In the silence I heard a voice say,17 ‘Can a mortal be innocent before God?
Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’18 “If God does not trust his own angels
and has charged his messengers with foolishness,19 how much less will he trust people made of clay!
They are made of dust, crushed as easily as a moth.20 They are alive in the morning but dead by evening,
gone forever without a trace.21 Their tent-cords are pulled and the tent collapses,
and they die in ignorance.