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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.”

6Then Job answered: ²“O that my vexation were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances! ³For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea; therefore my words have been rash. ⁴For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me. ⁵Does the wild ass bray over its grass, or the ox low over its fodder? ⁶Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt, or is there any flavor in the juice of mallows? ⁷My appetite refuses to touch them; they are like food that is loathsome to me.

⁸“O that I might have my request, and that God would grant my desire; ⁹that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off! ¹⁰This would be my consolation; I would even exult in unrelenting pain; for I have not denied the words of the Holy One. ¹¹What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient? ¹²Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? ¹³In truth I have no help in me, and any resource is driven from me.

¹⁴“Those who withhold kindness from a friend forsake the fear of the Almighty. ¹⁵My companions are treacherous like a torrent-bed, like freshets that pass away, ¹⁶that run dark with ice, turbid with melting snow. ¹⁷In time of heat they disappear; when it is hot, they vanish from their place. ¹⁸The caravans turn aside from their course; they go up into the waste, and perish. ¹⁹The caravans of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope. ²⁰They are disappointed because they were confident; they come there and are confounded. ²¹Such you have now become to me; you see my calamity, and are afraid.

²²Have I said, ‘Make me a gift’? Or, ‘From your wealth offer a bribe for me’? ²³Or, ‘Save me from an opponent’s hand’? Or, ‘Ransom me from the hand of oppressors’? ²⁴“Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone wrong. ²⁵How forceful are honest words! But your reproof, what does it reprove? ²⁶Do you think that you can reprove words, as if the speech of the desperate were wind? ²⁷You would even cast lots over the orphan, and bargain over your friend. ²⁸“But now, be pleased to look at me; for I will not lie to your face. ²⁹Turn, I pray, let no wrong be done. Turn now, my vindication is at stake. ³⁰Is there any wrong on my tongue? Cannot my taste discern calamity?

7“Do not human beings have a hard service on earth, and are not their days like the days of a laborer? ²Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like laborers who look for their wages, ³so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me. ⁴When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I rise?’ But the night is long, and I am full of tossing until dawn. ⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out again. ⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and come to their end without hope.

⁷“Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good. ⁸The eye that beholds me will see me no more; while your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone. ⁹As the cloud fades and vanishes, so those who go down to Sheol do not come up; ¹⁰they return no more to their houses, nor do their places know them any more. ¹¹“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. ¹²Am I the Sea, or the Dragon, that you set a guard over me? ¹³When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,’ ¹⁴then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, ¹⁵so that I would choose strangling and death rather than this body. ¹⁶I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath.

¹⁷What are human beings, that you make so much of them, that you set your mind on them, ¹⁸visit them every morning, test them every moment? ¹⁹Will you not look away from me for a while, let me alone until I swallow my spittle? ²⁰If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target? Why have I become a burden to you? ²¹Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.”