Job 4 — The Holy Bible

Eliphaz Accuses Job

Job 4, verse 1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

“Have you been often spoken to in distress?

But now who shall endure the force of your words?

For though you instructed many,

And strengthened the hands of the weak one,

And raised up the sick with your words,

And imparted courage to feeble knees,

Yet now pain has come upon you and touched you;

And you are anxious.

Is not your fear, your hope,

And the integrity of your way of life changed into folly?

Can you remember anyone pure who has perished,

Or true people who were altogether uprooted?

According to what I have seen,

those who plow harmful things and those who sow them

Will reap pain for themselves.

They will perish by the command of the Lord,

And they will be destroyed by the breath of His wrath.

The strength of the lion, the voice of the lioness,

And the exulting cry of dragons are extinguished.

The old lion has perished for lack of prey,

And the cubs of the lioness have left one another.

“But if there had been any truth in your words,

None of these evils would have befallen you.

Shall not my ear receive extraordinary things from him?

But just as when terror falls upon men

With dread at a noise in the night,

Shivering and trembling befell me

And caused my bones to shake.

Then a spirit came before my face,

And my hair and flesh shook with fear.

I arose, but could not recognize it.

I looked, and there was no form before my eyes,

But rather a gentle breeze, and a voice, saying,

‘What? Shall a mortal man be pure in the Lord's sight,

Or blameless before Him in his works?

If He puts no trust in His servants,

And if He observes a perverse way in His angels,

How much more those who dwell in houses of clay,

Of whom we also are formed of the same clay?

Does not He smite them like a moth?

They no longer exist from morning till evening;

They have perished, for they cannot help themselves.

For He blows upon them, and they are withered.

They have perished for lack of wisdom.’