FIRST SERIES OF SPEECHES
Eliphaz Speaks
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 Should anyone try to speak with you
when you are exhausted?
Yet who can keep from speaking?
3 Indeed, you have instructed many
and have strengthened h weak hands.
4 Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling
and braced the knees that were buckling. i
5 But now that this has happened to you,
you have become exhausted.
It strikes j you, and you are dismayed.
6 Isn’t your piety your confidence,
and the integrity of your life J your hope? k
7 Consider: Who has perished when he was innocent?
Where have the honest K been destroyed? l
8 In my experience, those who plow injustice
and those who sow trouble m reap the same. n
9 They perish at a single blast o from God
and come to an end by the breath of his nostrils. p
10 The lion may roar and the fierce lion q growl,
but the teeth of young lions are broken. r
11 The strong lion dies if it catches no prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. s
12 A word was brought to me in secret;
my ears caught a whisper of it. t
13 Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night, u
when deep sleep v comes over men,
14 fear and trembling came over me w
and made all my bones shake.
15 I felt a draft L on my face,
and the hair on my body stood up.
but I could not recognize its appearance;
a form loomed before my eyes.
I heard a whispering voice:
17 “Can a mortal be righteous before God?
Can a man be more pure than his Maker? ” x
18 If God puts no trust in his servants
and he charges his angels with foolishness, M,y
19 how much more those who dwell in clay houses, z
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed like a moth!
20 They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk;
they perish forever while no one notices. a
21 Are their tent cords not pulled up?
They die without wisdom. b