Job 4 - ESV Bible - Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: "If...

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 ¹strengthened the weak hands.

4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have ²made firm the feeble knees.

5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.

6 ³Is not your fear of God^a your ⁴confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?

7 "Remember: ⁵who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?

8 As I have seen, those who ⁶plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

9 By ⁷the breath of God they perish, and by ⁸the blast of his anger they are consumed.

10 The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, ⁹the 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 ¹⁰the whisper of it.

13 Amid ¹¹thoughts from ¹²visions of the night, when ¹³deep 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. ¹⁴A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard ¹⁵a voice:

17 ¹⁶'Can mortal man be in the right before^b God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?

18 Even in his servants ¹⁷he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error;

19 how much more those who dwell in houses of ¹⁸clay, whose foundation is in ¹⁹the dust, who are crushed like ²⁰the moth.

20 Between ²¹morning and evening they are beaten to pieces; they perish forever ²²without anyone regarding it.

21 Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them, ²³do they not die, and that without wisdom?'

Job 4 ESV