Job 4

Job 4

Eliphaz Speaks: Job Has Sinned

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

²“If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended?[#Job 32.18–20]

But who can keep from speaking?

³See, you have instructed many;[#Isa 35.3; Heb 12.12]

you have strengthened the weak hands.

⁴Your words have supported those who were stumbling,[#Isa 35.3; Heb 12.12]

and you have made firm the feeble knees.

⁵But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;[#Job 6.14; 19.21]

it touches you, and you are dismayed.

⁶Is not your fear of God your confidence[#Job 1.1]

and the integrity of your ways your hope?

⁷“Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?[#Ps 37.25]

Or where were the upright cut off?

⁸As I have seen, those who plow iniquity[#Prov 22.8; Hos 10.13; Gal 6.7, 8]

and sow trouble reap the same.

⁹By the breath of God they perish,[#Job 15.30; Ps 59.13; Isa 30.33]

and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.

¹⁰The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,[#Ps 58.6]

and the teeth of the young lions are broken.

¹¹The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,[#Ps 34.10]

and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.

¹²“Now a word came stealing to me;[#Job 26.14]

my ear received the whisper of it.

¹³Amid thoughts from visions of the night,

when deep sleep falls on mortals,

¹⁴dread came upon me and trembling,[#Jer 23.9]

which made all my bones shake.

¹⁵A spirit glided past my face;

the hair of my flesh bristled.

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 mortals be righteous before God?[#Job 9.2; 35.10; #4.17 Or more righteous than]

Can humans be pure before their Maker?

¹⁸Even in his servants he puts no trust,[#Job 15.15]

and his angels he charges with error;

¹⁹how much more those who live in houses of clay,[#Job 10.9; 22.16]

whose foundation is in the dust,

who are crushed like a moth.

²⁰Between morning and evening they are destroyed;[#Job 20.7; Ps 90.5, 6]

they perish forever without any regarding it.

²¹Their tent cord is plucked up within them,[#Job 36.12]

and they die devoid of wisdom.’