NRSV Job 4 Chapter
4:1
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
4:2
"If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended? But who can keep from speaking?
4:3
See, you have instructed many; you have strengthened the weak hands.
4:4
Your words have supported those who were stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.
4:5
But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.
4:6
Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
4:7
"Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?
4:8
As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.
4:9
By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
4:10
The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken.
4:11
The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.
4:12
"Now a word came stealing to me, my ear received the whisper of it.
4:13
Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on mortals,
4:14
dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
4:15
A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh bristled.
4:16
It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice:
4:17
'Can mortals be righteous before God? Can human beings be pure before their Maker?
4:18
Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error;
4:19
how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth.
4:20
Between morning and evening they are destroyed; they perish forever without any regarding it.
4:21
Their tent-cord is plucked up within them, and they die devoid of wisdom.'