Eliphaz Answers

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

2If we venture to converse with you, will you be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?

3Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.

4Your words have upheld him that was falling, and you have strengthened the feeble knees.

5But now it is come upon you, and you faint; it touches you, and you are troubled.

6Is not this your fear, your confidence, your hope, and the uprightness of your ways?

7Remember, I pray you, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?

8Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

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

10The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

11The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the strong lion's whelps are scattered abroad.

12Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it.

13In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

14Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.

15Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:

16It stood still, but I could not discern its form: an image was before my eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,

17Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?

18Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:

19How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth?

20They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish forever without any regarding it.

21Does not their excellence which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.