Eliphaz Speaks

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2Should anyone try to speak with you

when you are exhausted?

Yet who can keep from speaking?

3Indeed, you have instructed many

and have strengthened a weak hands.

4Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling

and braced the knees that were buckling. b

5But now that this has happened to you,

you have become exhausted.

It strikes c you, and you are dismayed.

6Isn’t your piety your confidence,

and the integrity of your life d your hope? e

7Consider: who has perished when he was innocent?

Where have the honest been destroyed? f

8In my experience, those who plow injustice

and those who sow trouble g reap the same. h

9They perish at a single blast i from God

and come to an end by the breath of His nostrils. j

10The lion may roar and the fierce lion k growl,

but the fangs of young lions are broken. l

11The strong lion dies if it catches no prey,

and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. m

12A word was brought to me in secret;

my ears caught a whisper of it. n

13Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night, o

when deep sleep p descends on men,

14fear and trembling came over me q

and made all my bones shake.

15A wind r passed by me,

and I shuddered with fear. s

16A figure stood there,

but I could not recognize its appearance;

a form loomed before my eyes.

I heard a quiet voice:

17“Can a person be more righteous than God,

or a man more pure than his Maker? ” t

18If God puts no trust in His servants

and He charges His angels with foolishness, u  v

19how much more those who dwell in clay houses, w

whose foundation is in the dust,

who are crushed like a moth!

20They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk;

they perish forever while no one notices. x

21Are their tent cords not pulled up?

They die without wisdom. y