1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
2. “If one attempts a word with you, will you be impatient?
2. But who can keep from speaking?
3. Surely you have instructed many,
3. and you have strengthened the weak hands.
4. Your words have raised up him who was falling,
4. and you have fortified the feeble knees.
5. But now it comes upon you, and you are weary;
5. it reaches even you, and you are terrified.
6. Is not your reverence your confidence?
6. And the integrity of your ways your hope?
7. “Remember now, who being innocent ever perished?
7. Or where were the upright ever wiped out?
8. Just like I have seen, those who plow iniquity
8. and sow trouble, reap the same.
9. By the breath of God they perish,
9. and by the blast of His anger they are destroyed.
10. The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion,
10. and the teeth of the young lions are broken.
11. The old lion perishes for lack of prey,
11. and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12. “Now a word was brought to me secretly,
12. and my ear received a whisper of it.
13. Amid disquieting thoughts from night visions,
13. when deep sleep falls on mortals,
14. terror and trembling came to me,
14. which made all my bones shake.
15. A breath of wind was passing before my face,
15. and the hair on my body was standingup.
16. It stood still,
16. but I could not recognize its appearance;
16. a form was in front of my eyes,
16. there was stillness, then I heard a voice saying:
17. ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God?
17. Can a man be more pure than his Maker?
18. He does not trust in His servants,
18. and He charges His angels with error;
19. Even more, those who dwell in houses of clay,
19. whose foundation is in the dust,
19. who are crushed before the moth.
20. They are broken in pieces from morning to evening;
20. they perish forever without anyone regarding it.
21. Are not their tent ropes plucked up,
21. so they die, even without wisdom?’