[1] 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 strengthened the weak hands. [4] Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. [5] But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed. [6] Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? [7] "Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? [8] As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. [9] By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed. [10] The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the 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 the whisper of it. [13] Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep 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. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice: [17] 'Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? [18] Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error; [19] how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth. [20] Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces; they perish forever without anyone regarding it. [21] Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them, do they not die, and that without wisdom?'
