Job 4:1-21 - Eliphaz's First Response To Job

¹ Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, ² If we essay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can refrain from speaking? ³ Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands. ⁴ Thy words have upheld him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees. ⁵ But now it hath come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled. ⁶ Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways? ⁷ Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off; ⁸ Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. ⁹ By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they 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 lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad.

¹² Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a small sound of it. ¹³ In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men. ¹⁴ Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. ¹⁵ Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up: ¹⁶ It stood still, but I could not discern its form: an image was before my eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, ¹⁷ Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker? ¹⁸ Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly: ¹⁹ How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth? ²⁰ They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it. ²¹ Doth not their excellence which is in them depart? they die, even without wisdom.