Job 4
GOD’S WORD Translation
Eliphaz Speaks: Be Patient and Listen, Job
4 Then Eliphaz from Teman replied ⌞to Job⌟,
2 “If someone tries to talk to you, will you become impatient?
But who can keep from talking?
3 Certainly, you have instructed many people:
When hands were weak, you made them strong.
4 When someone stumbled, you lifted him up with your words.
When knees were weak, you gave them strength.
5 But trouble comes to you, and you’re impatient.
It touches you, and you panic.
6 Doesn’t your fear of God give you confidence
and your lifetime of integrity give you hope?
Only Evil People Suffer
7 “Now think about this:
Which innocent person ⌞ever⌟ died ⌞an untimely death⌟?
Find me a decent person who has been destroyed.
8 Whenever I saw those who plowed wickedness and planted misery,
they gathered its harvest.
9 God destroys them with his breath
and kills them with a blast of his anger.
10 Though the roar of the lion
and the growl of the ferocious lion ⌞is loud⌟,
the young lions have had their teeth knocked out.
11 The old lions die without any prey ⌞to eat⌟,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12 “I was told something secretly
and heard something whispered in my ear.
13 With disturbing thoughts from visions in the night,
when deep sleep falls on people,
14 fear and trembling came over me,
and all my bones shook.
15 A spirit passed in front of me.
It made my hair stand on end.
16 Something stood there.
I couldn’t tell what it was.
A vague image was in front of my eyes.
I heard a soft voice:
17 ‘Can ⌞any⌟ mortal be righteous to God?
Can ⌞any⌟ human being be pure to his maker?’
18 “You see, God doesn’t trust his own servants,
and he accuses his angels of making mistakes.
19 How much more will he accuse those who live in clay houses
that have their foundation in the dust.
Those houses can be crushed quicker than a moth!
20 From morning to evening, they are shattered.
They will disappear forever without anyone paying attention.
21 Haven’t the ropes of their tent been loosened?
Won’t they die without wisdom?
Job 4
1599 Geneva Bible
4 5 Job is reprehended of impatience, 7 and injustice, 17 and of the presumption of his own righteousness.
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite, answered and said,
2 If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but [a]who can withhold himself from speaking?
3 Behold, thou hast taught many, and [b]hast strengthened the weary hands.
4 Thy words have confirmed him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the weak knees.
5 But now it is come upon thee, and thou art grieved: it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
6 Is not this thy [c]fear, thy confidence, thy patience, and uprightness of thy ways?
7 Remember, I pray thee: who ever perished, being an [d]innocent? or where were the upright destroyed?
8 As I have seen, they that [e]plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
9 With the [f]blast of God they perish, and with the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.
10 The roaring of the [g]Lion, and the voice of the Lioness, and the teeth of the Lion’s whelps are broken.
11 The Lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the Lion’s whelps are scattered abroad.
12 But a thing was brought to me [h]secretly, and mine ear hath received a little thereof.
13 In the thoughts of the visions of the night, when sleep falleth on men,
14 Fear came upon me, and dread which made all my bones [i]to tremble.
15 And the wind passed before me, and made the hairs of my flesh to stand up.
16 Then stood one, and I knew not his face: an image was before mine eyes, and in [j]silence heard I a voice, saying,
17 Shall man be more [k]just than God? or shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
18 Behold, he found no steadfastness in his servants, and laid folly upon his [l]Angels.
19 How much more in them that dwell in houses of [m]clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which shall be destroyed before the moth?
20 They be destroyed from the [n]morning unto the evening: they perish forever, [o]without regard.
21 Doth not their dignity go away with them? do they not die, and that without [p]wisdom?
Footnotes
- Job 4:2 Seeing this thine impatience.
- Job 4:3 Thou hast comforted others in their afflictions, and canst not now comfort thyself.
- Job 4:6 This he concludeth that Job was but an hypocrite, and had no true fear nor trust in God.
- Job 4:7 He concludeth that Job was reproved, seeing that God handled him so extremely, which is the argument that the carnal men make against the children of God.
- Job 4:8 They that do evil, cannot but receive evil.
- Job 4:9 He showeth that God needeth no great preparation to destroy his enemies: for he can do it with the blast of his mouth.
- Job 4:10 Though men according to their office do not punish tyrants (whom for their cruelty he compareth to lions, and their children to their whelps) yet God both is able, and his justice will punish them.
- Job 4:12 A thing that I knew not before, was declared unto me by vision, that is, that whosoever thinketh himself just, shall be found a sinner, when he cometh before God.
- Job 4:14 In these visions which God showeth to his creatures, there is ever a certain fear joined, that the authority thereof might be had in greater reverence.
- Job 4:16 When all things were quiet, or when the fear was somewhat assuaged, as God appeared to Elijah, 1 Kings 19:12.
- Job 4:17 He proveth that if God did punish the innocent, the creature should be more just than the Creator, which were a blasphemy.
- Job 4:18 If God find imperfection in his Angels, when they are not maintained by his power, how much more shall he lay folly to man’s charge when he would justify himself against God?
- Job 4:19 That is, in this mortal body, subject to corruption, as 2 Cor. 5:1.
- Job 4:20 They see death continually before their eyes, and daily approaching toward them.
- Job 4:20 No man for all this doth consider it.
- Job 4:21 That is, before that any of them were so wise, as to think on death.
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