| 1 | Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: |
| 2 | “If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended? But who can keep from speaking? |
| 3 | See, you have instructed many; you have strengthened the weak hands. |
| 4 | Your words have supported those who were 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 | “Think now, 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, and the teeth of the young lions are broken. |
| 11 | The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered. |
| 12 | “Now a word came stealing to me, my ear received the whisper of it. |
| 13 | Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on mortals, |
| 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 bristled. |
| 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 mortals be righteous before God? Can human beings be pure before their Maker? |
| 18 | Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error; |
| 19 | how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth. |
| 20 | Between morning and evening they are destroyed; they perish forever without any regarding it. |
| 21 | Their tent-cord is plucked up within them, and they die devoid of wisdom.’ |