1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
2"If we try to speak with you, will you be upset? But who can hold himself back from speaking?"
3"Look, you have taught many people, and you have strengthened weak hands."
4"Your words have held up the one who was falling, and you have strengthened knees that gave way."
5"But now trouble has come upon you, and you grow faint. It touches you, and you are dismayed."
6"Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the honesty of your ways your hope?"
7"Remember, please: who ever died while he was innocent? Where were the righteous ever cut off?"
8"As I have seen, those who plow evil and sow trouble reap the same."
9"By the blast of God they die, and by the breath of his nostrils they are destroyed."
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 dies for lack of prey, and the cubs of the strong lioness are scattered."
12"Now a word was brought to me in secret, and my ear caught a little of it."
13"In troubled thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people,"
14"fear came over me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake."
15"Then a spirit passed before my face, and the hair of my body stood up."
16"It stood still, but I could not make out its form. A shape was before my eyes. There was silence, and I heard a voice saying,"
17"'Shall a mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?"
18"'Look, he puts no trust in his servants, and he charges his angels with folly."
19"'How much less those who live 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, and no one pays attention."
21"'Does not their excellence within them go away? They die, and even without wisdom.'"