1 T hen Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

2 I f we venture to converse with you, will you be offended? Yet who can restrain himself from speaking?

3 B ehold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.

4 Y our words have held firm him who was falling, and you have strengthened the feeble knees.

5 B ut now it is come upon you, and you faint and are grieved; it touches you, and you are troubled and dismayed.

6 I s not your fear of God your confidence and the integrity and uprightness of your ways your hope?

7 T hink, I beg of you: who, being innocent, ever perished? Or where were those upright and in right standing with God cut off?

8 A s I myself have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble and mischief reap the same.

9 B y the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.

10 T he roaring of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken.

11 T he old and strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered abroad.

12 N ow a thing was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it.

13 I n thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

14 F ear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones shake.

15 T hen a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up!

16 s tood 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 C an 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 E ven in His servants He puts no trust or confidence, and His angels He charges with folly and error—

19 H ow much more those who dwell in houses (bodies) of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed like the moth.

20 B etween morning and evening they are destroyed; without anyone noticing it they perish forever.

21 I s not their tent cord plucked up within them ? Do they not die, and that without wisdom?