Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.
Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.
Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?
“Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?
As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.
By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken.
The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
“Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it.
Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.
‘Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?
how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth.
“Call now; is there anyone who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple.
I have seen the fool taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.
His children are far from safety; they are crushed in the gate, and there is no one to deliver them.
The hungry eat his harvest, and he takes it even out of thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground,
but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.
he gives rain on the earth and sends waters on the fields;
He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.
He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.
They meet with darkness in the daytime and grope at noonday as in the night.
But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth and from the hand of the mighty.
So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.
“Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.
In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword.
You shall be hidden from the lash of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes.
At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.
For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.
You shall know also that your offspring shall be many, and your descendants as the grass of the earth.
“Oh that my vexation were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!
For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea; therefore my words have been rash.
For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass, or the ox low over his fodder?
Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the juice of the mallow?
This would be my comfort; I would even exult in pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze?
“He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself.
The caravans turn aside from their course; they go up into the waste and perish.
The caravans of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope.
Or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary's hand’? Or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless’?
Do you think that you can reprove words, when the speech of a despairing man is wind?
You would even cast lots over the fatherless, and bargain over your friend.
Is there any injustice on my tongue? Cannot my palate discern the cause of calamity?
“Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?
Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,
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