Study Desk

Eliphaz

Then Eliphaz the Temanite^(a) replied:

"If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking?^(b)

Think how you have instructed many,^(c) how you have strengthened feeble hands.^(d)

Your words have supported those who stumbled;^(e) you have strengthened faltering knees.^(f)

But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;^(g) it strikes^(h) you, and you are dismayed.⁽ⁱ⁾

Should not your piety be your confidence^(j) and your blameless^(k) ways your hope?

"Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?^(l) Where were the upright ever destroyed?^(m)

As I have observed,⁽ⁿ⁾ those who plow evil^(o) and those who sow trouble reap it.^(p)

At the breath of God^(q) they perish; at the blast of his anger they are no more.^(r)

The lions may roar^(s) and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions^(t) are broken.^(u)

The lion perishes for lack of prey,^(v) and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.^(w)

"A word^(x) was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper^(y) of it.^(z)

Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people,^(aa)

fear and trembling^(ab) seized me and made all my bones shake.^(ac)

A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end.^(ad)

It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice:^(ae)

‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God?^(af) Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?^(ag)

If God places no trust in his servants,^(ah) if he charges his angels with error,^(ai)

how much more those who live in houses of clay,^(aj) whose foundations^(ak) are in the dust,^(al) who are crushed^(am) more readily than a moth!^(an)

Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish forever.^(ao)

Are not the cords of their tent pulled up,^(ap) so that they die^(aq) without wisdom?'^(ar)