Then Eliphaz the Temanite ... replied :
“ If one ventures a word with you , will you be wearied ? Yet who can keep from speaking ?
Surely you have instructed many , and have strengthened their feeble hands.
Your words have steadied those who stumbled ; you have braced the knees that were buckling.
But now (trouble) has come upon you , and you are weary. It strikes you , ... and you are dismayed.
Is your reverence not your confidence , and the uprightness of your ways your hope ?
Consider now, I plead : Who , - being innocent , has ever perished ? Or where have the upright been destroyed ?
As I have observed , those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.
By the breath of God they perish , and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.
The lion may roar , and the fierce lion may growl , yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.
The old lion perishes for lack of prey , and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
Now a word came to me secretly ; my ears caught a whisper of it.
In disquieting visions in the night , when deep sleep falls on men ,
fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shudder.
Then a spirit glided past my face , (and) the hair on my body bristled.
It stood still , but I could not discern its appearance ; a form loomed before my eyes , and I heard a whispering voice :
‘ {Can} a mortal be more righteous than God , or a man more pure than his Maker ?
If God puts no trust in His servants , and He charges His angels with error ,
how much more those who dwell in houses of clay , whose foundations are in the dust , who can be crushed ... like a moth !
They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk ; unnoticed ... , they perish forever.
Are not their tent cords - pulled up , so that they die without wisdom ? ’ (’’)