1:
Then Eliphaz the Themanite answered, and said:
2:
If we begin to speak to thee, perhaps thou wilt take it ill, but who can withhold the words he hath conceived?
3:
Behold thou hast taught many, and thou hast strengthened the weary hands:
4:
Thy words have confirmed them that were staggering, and thou hast strengthened the trembling knees:
5:
But now the scourge is come upon thee, and thou faintest: it hath touched thee, and thou art troubled.
6:
Where is thy fear, thy fortitude, thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways?
7:
Remember, I pray thee, 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 hath 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 understandeth, 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.