Job

4 Then responded Eliphaz the Temanite, and said:—

2 If one attempt a word unto thee wilt thou be impatient? But to restrain speech who can endure?

3 Lo! thou hast admonished many, And slack hands hast thou been wont to uphold:

4 Him that was stumbling have thy words raised up, And sinking knees hast thou strengthened.

5 But now it cometh upon thee And thou despairest, It smiteth even thee, And thou art dismayed.

6 Is not thy reverence thy confidence? And is not thy hope the very integrity of thy ways?

7 Remember, I pray thee, who being innocent hath perished, Or when the upright have been cut off.

8 So far as I have seen They who plow for iniquity And sow misery Reap the same:

9 By the blast of God they perish, And by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed:

10 [Notwithstanding] the roaring of the lion and the noise of the howling lion Yet the teeth of the fierce lions are broken:

11 The strong lion perishing for lack of prey Even the whelps of the lioness are scattered.

12 But unto me something was brought by stealth,—And mine ear caught a whispering of the same:

13 When there were thoughts from visions of the night,—When deep sleep falleth upon men

14 Dread came upon me and trembling, The multitude of my bones it put in dread:

15 Then a spirit over my face floated along, The hair of my flesh bristled-up:

16 It stood still but I could not distinguish its appearance, I looked but there was no form before mine eyes,—A whispering voice I heard:—

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

18 Lo! in his own servants he trusteth not, And his own messengers he chargeth with error:

19 How much more the dwellers in houses of clay, Which in the dust have their foundation, Which are crushed sooner than a moth:

20 Betwixt morning and evening are they broken in pieces, With none to save they utterly perish:

21 Is not their tent-rope within them torn away? They die, disrobed of wisdom!