Job 4

First Series of Speeches

Eliphaz Speaks

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2 Should anyone try to speak with you

when you are exhausted?

Yet who can keep from speaking?

3 Indeed, you have instructed many

and have strengthened  * 4:3 Jb 26:2; Is 35:3; Heb 12:12 weak hands.

4 Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling

and braced the knees that were buckling.  * 4:4 Dt 3:28; Jb 16:15; Is 41:10

5 But now that this has happened to you,

you have become exhausted.

It strikes  * 4:5 Jb 5:19; 6:7; 19:21 you, and you are dismayed.

6 Isn’t your piety your confidence,

and the integrity of your life  * 4:6 Lit ways your hope?  * 4:6 Jb 11:18; Ps 119:116; Jr 17:7

7 Consider: Who has perished when he was innocent?

Where have the honest  * 4:7 Or the upright, or those with integrity been destroyed?  * 4:7 Jb 8:20; Ps 37:25; Pr 12:21

8 In my experience, those who plow injustice

and those who sow trouble  * 4:8 Jb 5:7; 15:35; Is 59:4 reap the same.  * 4:8 Ps 7:15; Pr 22:8; Hs 8:7

9 They perish at a single blast  * 4:9 2Sm 22:26; Jb 37:10; Is 30:33 from God

and come to an end by the breath of his nostrils.  * 4:9 Ex 15:8–10; Ps 18:15; 2Th 2:8

10 The lion may roar and the fierce lion  * 4:10 Ps 10:9; 17:12; 22:13,21  growl,

but the teeth of young lions are broken.  * 4:10 Jb 29:17; Ps 3:7; 58:6

11 The strong lion dies if it catches no prey,

and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.  * 4:11 Ps 59:11; Pr 20:8,20; Is 33:3

12 A word was brought to me in secret;

my ears caught a whisper of it.  * 4:12 Jb 13:1; 33:16; 36:10,15

13 Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night,  * 4:13 Jb 7:14; 20:8; 33:15

when deep sleep  * 4:13 Gn 2:21; 15:12; Jb 33:15 comes over men,

14 fear and trembling came over me  * 4:14 Jb 21:6; Ps 55:5; 119:120

and made all my bones shake.

15 I felt a draft  * 4:15 Or a spirit on my face,

and the hair on my body stood up.

16 A figure stood there,

but I could not recognize its appearance;

a form loomed before my eyes.

I heard a whispering voice:

17 "Can a mortal be righteous before God?

Can a man be more pure than his Maker? "  * 4:17 Jb 15:14; 25:4; Pr 20:9

18 If God puts no trust in his servants

and he charges his angels with foolishness,  * 4:18 Or error; Hb obscure,* 4:18 Jb 15:15; 21:22; 25:5

19 how much more those who dwell in clay houses,  * 4:19 Jb 10:9; 33:6; Is 64:8

whose foundation is in the dust,

who are crushed like a moth!

20 They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk;

they perish forever while no one notices.  * 4:20 Jb 14:2; 20:7; Ps 90:5–6

21 Are their tent cords not pulled up?

They die without wisdom.  * 4:21 Jb 36:12; Pr 5:23; 10:21