Job 4

NEW JERUSALEM	Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
1 Eliphaz of Teman spoke next. He said:	1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
2 If we say something to you, wil you bear with us? Who in any case could refrain from speaking now?	2 "If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended? Yet who can keep from speaking?
3 You have schooled many others, giving strength to feeble hands;	3 Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.
4 your words supported any who wavered and strengthened every failing knee.	4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.
5 And now your turn has come, and you lose patience, at the first touch on yourself you are overwhelmed!	5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.
6 Does not your piety give you confidence, and your integrity of life give you hope?	6 Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
7 Can you recal anyone guiltless that perished? Where then have the honest been wiped out?	7 "Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?
8 I speak from experience: those who plough iniquity and sow disaster, reap just that.	8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.
9 Under the breath of God, they perish: a blast of his anger, and they are destroyed;	9 By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
10 the lion's roars, his savage growls, like the fangs of a lion cub, are broken off.	10 The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
11 The lion dies for lack of prey and the lioness's whelps are dispersed.	11 The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.
12 I have received a secret revelation, a whisper has come to my ears;	12 "Now a word was brought to me stealthily, my ear received the whisper of it.
13 by night when dreams confuse the mind and slumber lies heavy on everyone,	13 Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
14 a shiver of horror ran through me and fil ed al my bones with fright.	14 dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
15 A breath slid over my face, the hairs of my body bristled.	15 A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh 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 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 a mortal seem upright to God, would anybody seem pure in the presence of his Maker?	17 'Can mortal man be righteous before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?
18 God cannot rely even on his own servants, even with his angels he finds fault.	18 Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error;
19 What then of those who live in houses of clay, who are founded on dust?	19 how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before 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 Between morning and evening they are destroyed; they perish for ever without any regarding it.
21 Their tent-peg is snatched from them, and they die devoid of wisdom.'	21 If their tent-cord is plucked up within them, do they not die, and that without wisdom?'