Job 4

Berean Standard Bible

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

²“If one ventures a word with you, will you be wearied? Yet who can keep from speaking?

²“If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?

³Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.

³Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands.

⁴Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.

⁴Your words have supported him who was falling, you have made the feeble knees firm.

⁵But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.

⁵But now it has come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled.

⁶Is your reverence not your confidence, and the uprightness of your ways your hope?

⁶Isn’t your piety your confidence? Isn’t the integrity of your ways your hope?

⁷Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?

⁷“Remember, now, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?

⁸As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.

⁸According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble, reap the same.

⁹By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.

⁹By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed.

¹⁰The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.

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

¹¹The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

¹¹The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.

¹²Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it.

¹²“Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear received a whisper of it.

¹³In disquieting visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

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

¹⁴fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shudder.

¹⁴fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.

¹⁵Then a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled.

¹⁵Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up.

¹⁶It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes, and I heard a whispering voice:

¹⁶It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,

¹⁷‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?

¹⁷‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

¹⁸If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error,

¹⁸Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels with error.

¹⁹how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!

¹⁹How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!

²⁰They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; unnoticed, they perish forever.

²⁰Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it.

²¹Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’

²¹Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’