Job 4

¹ Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

² If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended?
But who can hold back from speaking?

³ Look, you have instructed many,
and you have strengthened weak hands.

⁴ Your words have raised up the stumbling,
and you have braced the faltering knees.

⁵ But now it comes to you and you are impatient;
it touches you and you are dismayed.

⁶ Is not your fear of God your confidence,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?

⁷ Think now: what innocent person has ever perished?
Where have the upright been cut off?

⁸ As I have seen, those who plow iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same.

⁹ By the breath of God they perish,
and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.

¹⁰ The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion —
but the teeth of the young lions are broken.

¹¹ The old lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

¹² Now a word was stolen to me,
and my ear caught a whisper of it —

¹³ amid thoughts from visions of the night,
when deep sleep falls on mortals.

¹⁴ Dread came upon me, and trembling,
and it made all my bones shake with fear.

¹⁵ A spirit passed over my face;
the hair of my flesh stood on end.

¹⁶ It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance —
a form before my eyes.
A hush, then I heard a voice:

¹⁷ "Can a mortal be righteous before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?"

¹⁸ "If he puts no trust in his servants,
and charges his angels with error —

¹⁹ "how much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed like a moth!

²⁰ "Between morning and evening they are shattered;
without anyone noticing, they perish forever.

²¹ "Is not their tent-cord pulled up within them?
They die, and without wisdom."