Eliphaz speaks

1Then El'iphaz the Te'manite answered:

2“If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended?

Yet who can keep from speaking?

3Behold, you have instructed many,

and you have strengthened the weak hands.

4Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,

and you have made firm the feeble knees.

5But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;

it touches you, and you are dismayed.

6Is not your fear of God your confidence,

and the integrity of your ways your hope?

7“Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?

Or where were the upright cut off?

8As I have seen, those who plough iniquity

and sow trouble reap the same.

9By the breath of God they perish,

and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.

10The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,

the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

11The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,

and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.

12“Now a word was brought to me stealthily,

my ear received the whisper of it.

13Amid thoughts from visions of the night,

when deep sleep falls on men,

14dread came upon me, and trembling,

which made all my bones shake.

15A spirit glided past my face;

the hair of my flesh stood up.

16It stood still,

but I could not discern its appearance.

A form was before my eyes;

there was silence, then I heard a voice:

17‘Can mortal man be righteous before4.17 Or more than God?

Can a man be pure before4.17 Or more than his Maker?

18Even in his servants he puts no trust,

and his angels he charges with error;

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

whose foundation is in the dust,

who are crushed before the moth.

20Between morning and evening they are destroyed;

they perish for ever without any regarding it.

21If their tent-cord is plucked up within them,

do they not die, and that without wisdom?’