- 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
- 2“If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?
- 3Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands.
- 4Your words have supported him who was falling, You have made firm the feeble knees.
- 5But now it has come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled.
- 6Isn’t your piety your confidence? Isn’t the integrity of your ways your hope?
- 7“Remember, now, whoever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?
- 8According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same.
- 9By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed.
- 10The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
- 11The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.
- 12“Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear received a whisper of it.
- 13In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
- 14fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
- 15Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up.
- 16It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,
- 17‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
- 18Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels with error.
- 19How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!
- 20Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it.
- 21Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’