1 THEN ELIPHAZ the Temanite answered and said,
2 If we venture to converse with you, will you be offended? Yet who can restrain himself from speaking? 3 Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. 4 Your words have held firm him who was falling, and you have strengthened the feeble knees. 5 But now it is come upon you, and you faint and are grieved; it touches you, and you are troubled and dismayed. 6 Is not your [reverent] fear of God your confidence and the integrity and uprightness of your ways your hope?
7 Think [earnestly], I beg of you: who, being innocent, ever perished? Or where were those upright and in right standing with God cut off? 8 As I myself have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble and mischief reap the same. 9 By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed. 10 The roaring of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken. 11 The old and strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered abroad.
12 Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it. 13 In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, 14 Fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones shake. 15 Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up! 16 [The spirit] stood still, but I could not discern the appearance of it. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, and then I heard a voice, saying, 17 Can mortal man be just before God, or be more right than He is? Can a man be pure before his Maker, or be more cleansed than He is? 18 Even in His [heavenly] servants He puts no trust or confidence, and His angels He charges with folly and error-- 19 How much more those who dwell in houses (bodies) of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed like the moth. 20 Between morning and evening they are destroyed; without anyone noticing it they perish forever. 21 Is not their tent cord plucked up within them [so that the tent falls]? Do they not die, and that without [acquiring] wisdom?
1 CALL NOW--is there any who will answer you? And to which of the holy [angels] will you turn? 2 For 1 vexation and rage kill the foolish man; jealousy and indignation slay the simple. 3 I have seen the foolish taking root [and outwardly prospering], but suddenly I saw that his dwelling was cursed [for his doom was certain]. 4 His children are far from safety; [involved in their father's ruin] they are crushed in the [court of justice in the city's] gate, and there is no one to deliver them. 5 His harvest the hungry eat and take it even [when it grows] among the thorns; the snare opens for [his] wealth. 6 For affliction comes not forth from the dust, neither does trouble spring forth out of the ground. 7 But man is born to trouble as the sparks and the flames fly upward.
8 As for me, I would seek God and inquire of and require Him, and to God would I commit my cause-- 9 Who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number, 10 Who gives rain upon the earth and sends waters upon the fields, 11 So that He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn He lifts to safety. 12 He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise or anything of [lasting] worth. 13 He catches the [so-called] wise in their own trickiness, and the counsel of the schemers is brought to a quick end. 14 In the daytime they meet in darkness, and at noon they grope as in the night. 15 But [God] saves [the fatherless] from the sword of their mouth, and the needy from the hand of the mighty. 16 So the poor have hope, and iniquity shuts her mouth.
17 Happy and fortunate is the man whom God reproves; so do not despise or reject the correction of the Almighty [subjecting you to trial and suffering]. 18 For He wounds, but He binds up; He smites, but His hands heal. 19 He will rescue you in six troubles; in seven nothing that is evil [for you] will touch you. 20 In famine He will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. 21 You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes. 22 At destruction and famine you shall laugh, neither shall you be afraid of the living creatures of the earth. 23 For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you. 24 And you shall know that your tent shall be in peace, and you shall visit your fold and your dwelling and miss nothing [from them]. 25 You shall know also that your children shall be many, and your offspring as the grass of the earth. 26 You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, and as a shock of grain goes up [to the threshing floor] in its season. 27 This is what we have searched out; it is true. Hear and heed it and know for yourself [for your good].