Job 4

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 Eliphaz of Teman spoke next. He said:	1 But Eliphaz the Themanite, answering, said:
2 If we say something to you, wil you bear with us? Who in any case could refrain from speaking now?	2 If we start to speak to you, perhaps you will take it badly, but who can hold back the words he has conceived?
3 You have schooled many others, giving strength to feeble hands;	3 Behold, you have taught many, and you have strengthened weary hands.
4 your words supported any who wavered and strengthened every failing knee.	4 Your words have reassured the wavering, and you have fortified the trembling knees.
5 And now your turn has come, and you lose patience, at the first touch on yourself you are overwhelmed!	5 But now the scourge has overcome you, and you falter. It has touched you, and you are disturbed.
6 Does not your piety give you confidence, and your integrity of life give you hope?	6 Where is your reverence, your fortitude, your patience, and the perfection of your ways?
7 Can you recal anyone guiltless that perished? Where then have the honest been wiped out?	7 Consider this, I beg you: who ever perished being innocent? Or when have the righteous been destroyed?
8 I speak from experience: those who plough iniquity and sow disaster, reap just that.	8 In fact, I have instead seen those who work iniquity and who sow resentments, reap them,
9 Under the breath of God, they perish: a blast of his anger, and they are destroyed;	9 perishing by the breath of God, and being consumed by the wrath of his spirit.
10 the lion's roars, his savage growls, like the fangs of a lion cub, are broken off.	10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of young lions have been worn away.
11 The lion dies for lack of prey and the lioness's whelps are dispersed.	11 The tiger has perished because it does not have prey, and the young lions have been scattered.
12 I have received a secret revelation, a whisper has come to my ears;	12 Furthermore, a word was spoken to me in secret, and, as if by theft, my ears received the pulse of its whisper.
13 by night when dreams confuse the mind and slumber lies heavy on everyone,	13 In the horror of a vision by night, when men are accustomed to be overtaken by a deep sleep,
14 a shiver of horror ran through me and fil ed al my bones with fright.	14 fear and trembling seized me and all my bones were terrified.
15 A breath slid over my face, the hairs of my body bristled.	15 And when a spirit passed before me, the hair on my body stood up.
16 Someone stood there -- I did not know his face, but the form stayed there before my eyes. Silence --then I heard a voice,	16 There appeared an image before my eyes, someone whose face I did not recognize, and I heard a voice like a gentle breeze.
17 'Can a mortal seem upright to God, would anybody seem pure in the presence of his Maker?	17 Should man be justified in relation to God, or will a man be more pure than his Maker?
18 God cannot rely even on his own servants, even with his angels he finds fault.	18 Behold, those who serve him are not steadfast, and in his angels he finds imperfection.
19 What then of those who live in houses of clay, who are founded on dust?	19 How much more will those who live in houses of clay, which have an earthly foundation, be consumed like the moth?
20 They are crushed as easily as a moth, between morning and evening they are ground to powder. Theyvanish for ever, with no one to bring them back.	20 From morning all the way to evening, they will be cut down, and because no one understands, they will be destroyed without ceasing.
21 Their tent-peg is snatched from them, and they die devoid of wisdom.'	21 But those who are left behind will be taken away from them; they will die, and not in wisdom.