Eliphaz: God is Righteous
4 Then Eliphaz the Temanite responded and said:
2 “If one attempts a word with you, will you become impatient?
But who can keep from speaking?
3 Behold, you have instructed many;
you have strengthened weak hands.
4 Your words have supported those who stumbled,
and strengthened buckling knees.
5 Yet now it has come to you,
and you are discouraged;
it strikes you,
and you are dismayed.
6 Is not your piety your confidence,
the integrity of your ways your hope?
7 Reflect now:
Who, being innocent, ever perished?
And where were the upright destroyed?
8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity
and sow harm, reap them.[a]
9 By the breath[b] of God they perish;
by the blast of His anger they vanish.[c]
10 The lion may roar and the cub growl,
but the teeth of young lions are broken.
11 The mighty lion perishes for lack of prey
and the lioness’ cubs are scattered.
Testimony of an Accusing Spirit
12 Now a word was secretly brought to me,
and my ear caught a whisper of it.
13 Amid unsettling visions in the night,
when a deep sleep falls on men,
14 dread and trembling seized me,
and made my bones shake.
15 Then a spirit brushed over my face,
and the hair of my flesh stood on end.
16 It stood still,
but I could not recognize its appearance,
A form was before my eyes
and I heard a murmur, a voice:
17 ‘Can a mortal be righteous before God;
or a man pure before his Creator?
18 If He puts no trust in His servants
and accuses His angels of error,
19 how much more those
who dwell in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed before the moth?
20 From morning until evening they are beaten into pieces—
unnoticed, they perish forever.
21 Is not their tent cord pulled out,
so that they die without wisdom.’”
Footnotes
- Job 4:8 cf. Gal. 6:7.
- Job 4:9 Heb. ruach, lit. wind.
- Job 4:9 cf. 2 Thes. 2:8.