Job 4

Eliphaz Speaks: The Innocent Prosper

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 a strengthened the weak hands.
4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
and you have a made firm the feeble knees.
5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
it touches you, and you are dismayed.
6 b Is not your fear of God 1 your c confidence,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?

7 "Remember: d who that was innocent ever perished?
Or where were the upright cut off?
8 As I have seen, those who e plow iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same.
9 By f the breath of God they perish,
and by g the blast of his anger they are consumed.
10 The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,
h the 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 i the whisper of it.
13 Amid j thoughts from k visions of the night,
when k deep 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.
l A form was before my eyes;
there was silence, then I heard m a voice:
17 n 'Can mortal man be in the right before 2 God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?
18 Even in his servants o he puts no trust,
and his angels he charges with error;
19 how much more those who dwell in houses of p clay,
whose foundation is in q the dust,
who are crushed like r the moth.
20 Between s morning and evening they are beaten to pieces;
they perish forever t without anyone regarding it.
21 Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them,
u do they not die, and that without wisdom?'

  1. Cross References
    Isaiah 35:3
    Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
    Hebrews 12:12
    Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees.
  2. Cross References
    Job 4:3
    Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.
  3. Cross References
    Job 1:1
    There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
  4. Cross References
    Job 31:24
    If I have made gold my trust or called fine gold my confidence.
    Proverbs 3:26
    For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.
  5. Cross References
    Psalms 37:25
    I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.
  6. Cross References
    Hosea 10:13
    You have plowed iniquity; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors.
    Psalms 7:14
    Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.
    Proverbs 22:8
    Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.
    Galatians 6:7 - 8
    Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
  7. Cross References
    Isaiah 30:33
    For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
  8. Cross References
    Job 15:30
    He will not depart from darkness; the flame will dry up his shoots, and by the breath of his mouth he will depart.
    Exodus 15:8
    At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.
    Psalms 18:15
    Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
    Isaiah 11:4
    But with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
    2 Thessalonians 2:8
    And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
  9. Cross References
    Psalms 58:6
    O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
    Job 29:17
    I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
    Psalms 3:7
    Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.
  10. Cross References
    Job 26:14
    Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?
  11. Cross References
    Job 20:2
    Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me.
  12. Cross References
    Job 33:15
    In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds.
    Genesis 2:21
    So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
    Genesis 15:12
    As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.
    1 Samuel 26:12
    So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head, and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them.
    Isaiah 29:10
    For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).
  13. Cross References
    Job 33:15
    In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds.
    Genesis 2:21
    So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
    Genesis 15:12
    As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.
    1 Samuel 26:12
    So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head, and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them.
    Isaiah 29:10
    For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).
  14. Cross References
    Numbers 12:8
    With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?
  15. Cross References
    1 Kings 19:12
    And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.
  16. Cross References
    Job 9:2
    Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?
    Job 10:4
    Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees?
    Job 25:4
    How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure?
    Job 32:2
    Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God.
  17. Cross References
    Job 15:15
    Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight.
  18. Cross References
    Job 10:9
    Remember that you have made me like clay; and w...
    Job 13:12
    Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defense...
    Job 33:6
    Behold, I am toward God as you are; I too was p...
    Isaiah 64:8
    But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the...
    2 Corinthians 4:7
    But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to s...
    2 Corinthians 5:1
    For we know that if the tent that is our earthl...
  19. Cross References
    Genesis 2:7
    Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
    Genesis 3:19
    By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
    Genesis 18:27
    Abraham answered and said, "Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.
  20. Cross References
    Job 13:28
    Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
  21. Cross References
    Psalms 90:5 - 6
    You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:
    Isaiah 38:12
    My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd's tent; like a weaver I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom; from day to night you bring me to an end.
  22. Cross References
    Isaiah 42:25
    So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.
    Isaiah 57:1
    The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity.
  23. Cross References
    Job 36:12
    But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge.
    Proverbs 5:23
    He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.
    Proverbs 10:21
    The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense.
    Hosea 4:6
    My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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