Holman Christian Standard Bible | New International Version |
1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: | 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: |
2Should anyone try to speak with you when you are exhausted? Yet who can keep from speaking? | 2"If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking? |
3Indeed, you have instructed many and have strengthened weak hands. | 3Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands. |
4Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling and braced the knees that were buckling. | 4Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees. |
5But now that this has happened to you, you have become exhausted. It strikes you, and you are dismayed. | 5But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed. |
6Isn't your piety your confidence, and the integrity of your life your hope? | 6Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope? |
7Consider: who has perished when he was innocent? Where have the honest been destroyed? | 7"Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? |
8In my experience, those who plow injustice and those who sow trouble reap the same. | 8As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. |
9They perish at a single blast from God and come to an end by the breath of His nostrils. | 9At the breath of God they perish; at the blast of his anger they are no more. |
10The lion may roar and the fierce lion growl, but the fangs of young lions are broken. | 10The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions are broken. |
11The strong lion dies if it catches no prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. | 11The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. |
12A word was brought to me in secret; my ears caught a whisper of it. | 12"A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it. |
13Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night, when deep sleep descends on men, | 13Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people, |
14fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shake. | 14fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake. |
15A wind passed by me, and I shuddered with fear. | 15A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. |
16A figure stood there, but I could not recognize its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes. I heard a quiet voice: | 16It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice: |
17"Can a person be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?" | 17Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker? |
18If God puts no trust in His servants and He charges His angels with foolishness, | 18If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error, |
19how much more those who dwell in clay houses, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth! | 19how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth! |
20They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; they perish forever while no one notices. | 20Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish forever. |
21Are their tent cords not pulled up? They die without wisdom. | 21Are not the cords of their tent pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?' |
Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. | New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. |
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