JOB 4
Eliphaz Speaks: The Innocent Prosper
[1] Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
[2] “If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
Yet who can keep from speaking?
[3] Behold, you have instructed many,
and you have strengthened the weak hands.
[4] Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
and you have made firm the feeble knees.
[5] But now it has come 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] “Remember: who that was innocent ever perished?
Or where were the upright 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,
the teeth of the young lions are broken.
[11] The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
[12] “Now a word was brought to me stealthily;
my ear received the whisper of it.
[13] Amid thoughts from visions of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men,
[14] dread came upon me, and trembling,
which made all my bones shake.
[15] A spirit glided past my face;
the hair of my flesh stood up.
[16] It stood still,
but I could not discern its appearance.
A form was before my eyes;
there was silence, then I heard a voice:
[17] ‘Can mortal man be in the right before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?
[18] Even in his servants he puts no trust,
and his angels he charges with error;
[19] how much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed like the moth.
[20] Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces;
they perish forever without anyone regarding it.
[21] Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them,
do they not die, and that without wisdom?’ (ESV)
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