Eliphaz Speaks: The Innocent Prosper
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 “If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
Yet who can keep from speaking?
3 Behold, you have instructed many,
and you have astrengthened the weak hands.
4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
and you have amade firm the feeble knees.
5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
it touches you, and you are dismayed.
6 aIs not your fear of God your bconfidence,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?
7 “Remember: awho that was innocent ever perished?
Or where were the upright cut off?
8 As I have seen, those who aplow iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same.
9 By athe breath of God they perish,
and by bthe blast of his anger they are consumed.
10 The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,
athe teeth of the young lions are broken.
11 The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12 “Now a word was brought to me stealthily;
my ear received athe whisper of it.
13 Amid athoughts from bvisions of the night,
when bdeep sleep falls on men,
14 dread came upon me, and trembling,
which made all my bones shake.
15 A spirit glided past my face;
the hair of my flesh stood up.
16 It stood still,
but I could not discern its appearance.
aA form was before my eyes;
there was silence, then I heard ba voice:
17 a‘Can mortal man be in the right before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?
18 Even in his servants ahe puts no trust,
and his angels he charges with error;
19 how much more those who dwell in houses of aclay,
whose foundation is in bthe dust,
who are crushed like cthe moth.
20 Between amorning and evening they are beaten to pieces;
they perish forever bwithout anyone regarding it.
21 Is not their tent‑cord plucked up within them,
ado they not die, and that without wisdom?’