[1] Then Eli'phaz the Te'manite answered: [2] "If one ventures a word with
you, will you be offended? Yet who can keep from speaking? [3] Behold, you
have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. [4] Your
words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have 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] Is 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+? [8] As I have seen,
those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. [9] By the breath of
God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed. [10] The
roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young
lions, are broken. [11] The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the
whelps of the lioness are scattered. [12] "Now a word was brought to me
stealthily, my ear received the whisper of it. [13] Amid thoughts from
visions of the night, when 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. A form was before my eyes; there was silence,
then I heard a voice: [17] `an mortal man be righteous before God? Can a
man be pure before his Maker? [18] Even in his servants he puts no trust,
and his angels he charges with error; [19] how much more those who dwell in
houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the
moth. [20] Between morning and evening they are destroyed; they perish for
ever without any regarding it. [21] If their tent-cord is plucked up within
them, do they not die, and that without wisdom?'