Job, 4

1. Eliphaz of Teman spoke next. He said:

1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

2. If we say something to you, will you bear with us? Who in any case could refrain from speaking now?

2. [If] we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?

3. You have schooled many others, giving strength to feeble hands;

3. Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.

4. your words supported any who wavered and strengthened every failing knee.

4. Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.

5. And now your turn has come, and you lose patience, at the first touch on yourself you are overwhelmed!

5. But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.

6. Does not your piety give you confidence, and your integrity of life give you hope?

6. [Is] not [this] thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?

7. Can you recall anyone guiltless that perished? Where then have the honest been wiped out?

7. Remember, I pray thee, who [ever] perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?

8. I speak from experience: those who plough iniquity and sow disaster, reap just that.

8. Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

9. Under the breath of God, they perish: a blast of his anger, and they are destroyed;

9. By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.

10. the lion's roars, his savage growls, like the fangs of a lion cub, are broken off.

10. The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

11. The lion dies for lack of prey and the lioness's whelps are dispersed.

11. The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad.

12. I have received a secret revelation, a whisper has come to my ears;

12. Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.

13. by night when dreams confuse the mind and slumber lies heavy on everyone,

13. In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,

14. a shiver of horror ran through me and filled all my bones with fright.

14. Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.

15. A breath slid over my face, the hairs of my body bristled.

15. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:

16. Someone stood there -- I did not know his face, but the form stayed there before my eyes. Silence -- then I heard a voice,

16. It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image [was] before mine eyes, [there was] silence, and I heard a voice, [saying],

17. 'Can a mortal seem upright to God, would anybody seem pure in the presence of his Maker?

17. Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?

18. God cannot rely even on his own servants, even with his angels he finds fault.

18. Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:

19. What then of those who live in houses of clay, who are founded on dust?

19. How much less [in] them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation [is] in the dust, [which] are crushed before the moth?

20. They are crushed as easily as a moth, between morning and evening they are ground to powder. They vanish for ever, with no one to bring them back.

20. They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding [it].

21. Their tent-peg is snatched from them, and they die devoid of wisdom.'

21. Doth not their excellency [which is] in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.