Chapter 4

Chapter 4
1 Then Eliphaz the Themanite answered, and said:
2 If we begin to speak to you, perhaps you will take it ill, but who can withhold the words he has conceived?
3 Behold you have taught many, and you have strengthened the weary hands:
4 your words have confirmed them that were staggering, and you have strengthened the trembling knees:
5 But now the scourge is come upon you, and you faintest: it has touched you, and you are troubled.
6 Where is your fear, your fortitude, your patience, and the perfection of your ways?
7 Remember, I pray you, who ever perished being innocent? or when were the just destroyed?
8 On the contrary I have seen those who work iniquity, and sow sorrows, and reap them,
9 Perishing by the blast of God, and consumed by the spirit of his wrath.
10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the whelps of lions are broken:
11 The tiger has perished for want of prey, and the young lions are scattered abroad.
12 Now there was a word spoken to me in private, and my ears by stealth as it were received the veins of its whisper.
13 In the horror of a vision by night, when deep sleep is wont to hold men,
14 Fear seized upon me, and trembling, and all my bones were affrighted:
15 And when a spirit passed before me, the hair of my flesh stood up.
16 There stood one whose countenance I knew not, an image before my eyes, and I heard the voice as it were of a gentle wind:
17 Shall man be justified in comparison of God, or shall a man be more pure than his maker?
18 Behold they that serve him are not steadfast, and in his angels he found wickedness:
19 How much more shall they that dwell in houses of clay, who have an earthly foundation, be consumed as with the moth?
20 From morning till evening they shall be cut down: and because no one understands, they shall perish for ever.
21 And they that shall be left, shall be taken away from them: they shall die, and not in wisdom.