Job 4
Holman Christian Standard Bible
First Series of Speeches
Eliphaz Speaks
4 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 Should anyone try to speak with you
when you are exhausted?
Yet who can keep from speaking?
3 Indeed, you have instructed many
and have strengthened(A) weak hands.
4 Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling
and braced the knees that were buckling.(B)
5 But now that this has happened to you,
you have become exhausted.
It strikes(C) you, and you are dismayed.
6 Isn’t your piety your confidence,
and the integrity of your life[a] your hope?(D)
7 Consider: who has perished when he was innocent?
Where have the honest been destroyed?(E)
8 In my experience, those who plow injustice
and those who sow trouble(F) reap the same.(G)
9 They perish at a single blast(H) from God
and come to an end by the breath of His nostrils.(I)
10 The lion may roar and the fierce lion(J) growl,
but the fangs of young lions are broken.(K)
11 The strong lion dies if it catches no prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.(L)
12 A word was brought to me in secret;
my ears caught a whisper of it.(M)
13 Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night,(N)
when deep sleep(O) descends on men,
14 fear and trembling came over me(P)
and made all my bones shake.
15 A wind[b] passed by me,
and I shuddered with fear.[c]
16 A figure stood there,
but I could not recognize its appearance;
a form loomed before my eyes.
I heard a quiet voice:
17 “Can a person be more righteous than God,
or a man more pure than his Maker?”(Q)
18 If God puts no trust in His servants
and He charges His angels with foolishness,[d](R)
19 how much more those who dwell in clay houses,(S)
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed like a moth!
20 They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk;
they perish forever while no one notices.(T)
21 Are their tent cords not pulled up?
They die without wisdom.(U)
Job 4
Jubilee Bible 2000
4 ¶ Then Eliphaz, the Temanite, answered and said,
2 If we attempt to commune with thee, thou wilt be grieved. But who can withhold himself from speaking?
3 Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
4 Thy words have upheld the one that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.
5 But now that it is come upon thee, thou art grieved; it touches thee, and thou art troubled.
6 Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the integrity of thy ways?
7 ¶ Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the righteous cut off?
8 Even as I have seen, those that plow iniquity and sow wickedness, reap the same.
9 By the breath of God they perish, and by the spirit of his anger they are consumed.
10 The roaring of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
11 The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the stout lion’s whelps are scattered abroad.
12 ¶ Now the matter was also hidden from me, but my ear has perceived a little of it.
13 In imaginations of visions of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men,
14 fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.
15 Then a spirit passed before me which caused the hair of my flesh to stand up.
16 A ghost stood in front of me, whose face I did not recognize, and I heard it say,
17 Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his maker?
18 Behold, he put no trust in his slaves, and his angels he charged with folly.
19 How much more with those that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who shall be crushed by the moth!
20 They are destroyed from morning to evening; they perish for ever without anyone regarding it.
21 Does their beauty perish with them? They die and do not know.
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