4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
4:2 “If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?
4:3 Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands.
4:4 Your words have supported him who was falling, You have made firm the feeble knees.
4:5 But now it has come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled.
4:6 Isn’t your piety your confidence? Isn’t the integrity of your ways your hope?
4:7 “Remember, now, whoever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?
4:8 According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same.
4:9 By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed.
4:10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
4:11 The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.
4:12 “Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear received a whisper of it.
4:13 In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
4:14 fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
4:15 Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up.
4:16 It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,
4:17 ‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
4:18 Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels with error.
4:19 How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!
4:20 Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it.
4:21 Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’
5:1 “Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
5:2 For resentment kills the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple.
5:3 I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
5:4 His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,
5:5 whose harvest the hungry eats up, and take it even out of the thorns. The snare gapes for their substance.
5:6 For affliction doesn’t come forth from the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground;
5:7 but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
5:8 “But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God,
5:9 who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvelous things without number;
5:10 who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields;
5:11 so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety.
5:12 He frustrates the devices of the crafty, So that their hands can’t perform their enterprise.
5:13 He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.
5:14 They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night.
5:15 But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty.
5:16 So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.
5:17 “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.
5:18 For he wounds, and binds up. He injures, and his hands make whole.
5:19 He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil shall touch you.
5:20 In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword.
5:21 You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes.
5:22 At destruction and famine you shall laugh, neither shall you be afraid of the animals of the earth.
5:23 For you shall be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field shall be at peace with you.
5:24 You shall know that your tent is in peace. You shall visit your fold, and shall miss nothing.
5:25 You shall know also that your seed shall be great, Your offspring as the grass of the earth.
5:26 You shall come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season.
5:27 Look this, we have searched it, so it is. Hear it, and know it for your good.”