Eliphaz: what innocent man ever perished?
1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: 2If someone ventures a word with you, will it wear you out? Yet who can hold his words in? 3Look, you have set many right, and strengthened hands gone slack. 4Your words have raised the stumbling man, and braced the knees that were buckling. 5But now it comes to you, and you are worn out; it touches you, and you are dismayed. 6Is your reverence not your confidence, and the integrity of your ways not your hope? 7Think back: what innocent man ever perished? Where were the upright ever wiped out? 8As I have seen it: those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. 9By the breath of Eloah they perish; by the blast of his nostrils they are finished. 10The lion’s roar, the great lion’s voice — and the young lions’ teeth are knocked out. 11The old lion dies for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
A word came to me in stealth
12A word was brought to me in stealth; my ear caught the whisper of it. 13In the unquiet thoughts of visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men, 14dread came over me, and trembling, and it set all my bones shuddering. 15A spirit passed across my face; the hair of my flesh bristled. 16It stood there, and I could not make out its look; a form was before my eyes. A hush — and I heard a voice: 17Can a mortal be righteous before Eloah? Can a valiant man be pure before his Maker? 18See, he puts no trust in his servants, and charges his angels with error; 19how much less those who live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed sooner than a moth. 20Between morning and evening they are shattered; with no one noticing, they perish forever. 21Is their tent cord not pulled up within them? They die, and not in wisdom.
