Job 4

¹ Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: ² "If someone tries a word with you, would you tire? Yet who can restrain from declarations? ³ Behold, you have disciplined many, And you always fortified the slacking hands. ⁴ Your declarations raised the one stumbling, And you made the bowing knees resolute. ⁵ But now it is coming on you, and you tire; It is touching unto you, and you panic. ⁶ Is not your pious fear your confidence, And your flawless ways your expectation? ⁷ Remember, I pray, who that is innocent perishes? And where then are the upright suppressed? ⁸ Just as I have seen, those who plow lawlessness And those who sow misery are harvesting it. ⁹ By the breath of Eloah are they perishing, And by the spirit of His nostrils are they being finished. ¹⁰ There is the roaring of the lion and the voice of the black lion, Yet the teeth of the sheltered lions are broken out; ¹¹ The long-maned lion is perishing from lack of prey, And the cubs of the lioness are parted away. ¹² Now a word was brought stealthily to me, And my ear took hold of a little buzz of it. ¹³ In disquieting thoughts from visions of the night, In that stupor which falls on mortals, ¹⁴ Alarm befell me and quivering, And it made the multitude of my bones afraid. ¹⁵ Then a spirit passed on before my face; The hair of my flesh bristled. ¹⁶ Something stood there, yet I could not recognize its appearance; A representation was in front of my eyes; It was still, and I heard a voice. ¹⁷ Is a mortal more righteous than Eloah? Or is a master more pure than His Maker? ¹⁸ Behold, if He places no faith in His servants, And He charges His messengers with impropriety, ¹⁹ How much more so those who tabernacle in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the soil? Forces crush them like a moth. ²⁰ From morning to evening they are being pounded; Without being regarded, they perish permanently. ²¹ Has not their tent-cord been lugged out from them? They die, but not with wisdom."