Eliphaz: Job Is Chastised by God

¹“Call out now; is anyone answering you?

And to whom among the holy ones will you turn?

²For anger slays the foolish man,

and jealousy kills the gullible.

³Yes, I saw the foolish taking root,[#Ps 37:35–36]

and quickly I cursed his dwelling.

⁴May his children be far from safety,

and may they be crushed in the gate without a deliverer;

⁵whose harvest the hungry eats up,

and takes it even out of the thorns,

and the thirsty captures his wealth.

⁶For affliction does not come out of the dust,

nor does trouble sprout up out of the ground;

⁷but man is born to trouble,[#Job 14:1]

as the sparks fly upward.

⁸“Indeed, I would appeal to God,[#Ps 50:15]

and before God I would set forth my case,

⁹who does the great and the inscrutable,

wonders without number.

¹⁰He gives rain on the surface of the earth[#Ps 147:8; Jer 5:24; Am 4:7; Ac 14:17]

and sends water on the outdoor places.

¹¹He sets on high those who are lowly,

and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

¹²He frustrates the schemes of the crafty,

so that their hands cannot perform their plans.

¹³He catches the wise in their own craftiness,[#1Co 3:19]

and the scheme of the shrewd is swiftly stopped.

¹⁴In the daytime they encounter darkness,

and at noontime they grope as in the night.

¹⁵But the needy He saves from the sword,[#Ps 35:10]

from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.

¹⁶So the helpless has hope,

and injustice shuts her mouth.

¹⁷“Behold, blessed is the man whom God corrects![#Ps 94:12; Jas 1:12]

Therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty,

¹⁸for He wounds, but He applies the bandage;

He injures, but His hands also heal.

¹⁹In six crises He will deliver you;

even in seven, disaster will not touch you.

²⁰In famine He will redeem you from death,[#Ps 33:19]

and in war from the power of the sword.

²¹You will be hidden from the lash of the tongue,[#Ps 31:20]

and you will not fear violence when it comes.

²²You will laugh at devastation and famine,

and you will not fear wild animals.

²³For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field,

and the wild animals will be at peace with you.

²⁴You will know that your tent is peaceful,

and you will inspect your property and find nothing missing.

²⁵You will know that your offspring will be many[#Ps 112:2]

and your descendants as the grass of the earth.

²⁶You go to the grave in a full age,[#Ge 15:15; 25:8]

as stalks of grain are gathered up in season.

²⁷“Behold, we have investigated all this, and it is so;[#Ps 111:2]

hear it, and know for yourself.”