[1] Then Eliphaz, a native of Teman, responded: [2] If one tries to answer you, will you be annoyed? But who can hold words back? [3] Look, you’ve instructed many and given strength to drooping hands. [4] Your words have raised up the falling; you’ve steadied failing knees. [5] But now it comes to you, and you are dismayed; it has struck you, and you are frightened. [6] Isn’t your religion the source of your confidence; the integrity of your conduct, the source of your hope? [7] Think! What innocent person has ever perished? When have those who do the right thing been destroyed? [8] As I’ve observed, those who plow sin and sow trouble will harvest it. [9] When God breathes deeply, they perish; by a breath of his nostril they are annihilated. [10] The roar of a lion and snarl of the king of beasts—yet the teeth of lions are shattered; [11] the lion perishes without prey, and its cubs are scattered. [12] But a word sneaked up on me; my ears caught a hint of it. [13] In profound thoughts, visions of night, when deep sleep falls on people, [14] fear and dread struck me; all of my bones shook. [15] A breeze swept by my face; the hair of my skin bristled. [16] It stopped. I didn’t recognize its visible form, although a figure was in front of my eyes. Silence! Then I heard a voice: [17] “Can a human be more righteous than God, a person purer than their maker?” [18] If he doesn’t trust his servants and levels a charge against his messengers, [19] how much less those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in dust, and who are crushed like a moth? [20] They are smashed between morning and evening; they perish forever without anyone knowing. [21] Isn’t their tent cord pulled up? They die without wisdom.
