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