1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:2“If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet who can keep from speaking?3Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. (Isa 35:3; Heb 12:12)4Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. (Job 4:3)5But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.6Is not your fear of God[1] your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? (Job 1:1; Job 31:24; Pr 3:26)7“Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? (Ps 37:25)8As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. (Ps 7:14; Pr 22:8; Ho 10:13; Ga 6:7)9By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed. (Ex 15:8; Job 15:30; Ps 18:15; Isa 11:4; Isa 30:33; 2Th 2:8)10The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken. (Job 29:17; Ps 3:7; Ps 58:6)11The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.12“Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it. (Job 26:14)13Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, (Ge 2:21; Ge 15:12; 1Sa 26:12; Job 20:2; Job 33:15; Isa 29:10)14dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.15A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.16It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice: (Nu 12:8; 1Ki 19:12)17‘Can mortal man be in the right before[2] God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? (Job 9:2; Job 10:4; Job 25:4; Job 32:2)18Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error; (Job 15:15)19how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like[3] the moth. (Ge 2:7; Ge 3:19; Ge 18:27; Job 10:9; Job 13:12; Job 13:28; Job 33:6; Isa 64:8; 2Co 4:7; 2Co 5:1)20Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces; they perish forever without anyone regarding it. (Ps 90:5; Isa 38:12; Isa 42:25; Isa 57:1)21Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them, do they not die, and that without wisdom?’ (Job 36:12; Pr 5:23; Pr 10:21; Ho 4:6)