| 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? |
Cross references:
-
Job 4:17 : I John 1:7; Rev. 1:5.
|