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4Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: ²“If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended? But who can keep from speaking? ³See, you have instructed many; you have strengthened the weak hands. ⁴Your words have supported those who were stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. ⁵But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed. ⁶Is 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? ⁸As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. ⁹By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed. ¹⁰The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken. ¹¹The 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. ¹³Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on mortals, ¹⁴dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. ¹⁵A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh bristled. ¹⁶It 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? ¹⁸Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error; ¹⁹how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth. ²⁰Between morning and evening they are destroyed; they perish forever without any regarding it. ²¹Their tent-cord is plucked up within them, and they die devoid of wisdom.’

5“Call now; is there anyone who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn? ²Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple. ³I have seen fools taking root, but suddenly I cursed their dwelling. ⁴Their children are far from safety, they are crushed in the gate, and there is no one to deliver them. ⁵The hungry eat their harvest, and they take it even out of the thorns; and the thirsty pant after their wealth.

⁶For misery does not come from the earth, nor does trouble sprout from the ground; ⁷but human beings are born to trouble just as sparks fly upward. ⁸“As for me, I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause. ⁹He does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number. ¹⁰He gives rain on the earth and sends waters on the fields; ¹¹he sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety. ¹²He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success. ¹³He takes the wise in their own craftiness; and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end. ¹⁴They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope at noonday as in the night. ¹⁵But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth, from the hand of the mighty. ¹⁶So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.

¹⁷“How happy is the one whom God reproves; therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. ¹⁸For he wounds, but he binds up; he strikes, but his hands heal. ¹⁹He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no harm shall touch you. ²⁰In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. ²¹You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes. ²²At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth. ²³For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the wild animals shall be at peace with you. ²⁴You shall know that your tent is safe, you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing. ²⁵You shall know that your descendants will be many, and your offspring like the grass of the earth. ²⁶You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season. ²⁷See, we have searched this out; it is true. Hear, and know it for yourself.”