Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Job 4
Eliphaz Begins to Speak
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
“If someone ventures a word with you,
will you become impatient?
But who can hold back words?
Look, you have instructed many,
and you strengthened weak hands.
Your words raised up one who was stumbling,
and you strengthened knees that were bending.
But now it comes to you, and you are impatient;
it touches you, and you are terrified.
Is not your fear of God your confidence,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?
Who Ever Perished Being Innocent?
Remember now: who, being innocent, ever perished?
And where were the upright ever cut off?
As I have seen,
people who plow trouble
and sow harm reap it.
By the breath of God they perish,
and by the wind of his anger they are consumed.
The roar of the lion,
the voice of the fierce lion,
and the teeth of the young lions are broken.
The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
A Word Came Secretly to Me
Now a word came secretly to me,
and my ear received a whisper of it,
amid troubling thoughts from visions of the night,
when deep sleep falls upon people.
Dread came upon me, and trembling,
and made all my bones shake.
A spirit passed before my face;
the hair of my flesh stood up.
It stood still,
but I could not recognize its appearance.
A form was before my eyes;
there was silence, then I heard a voice:
Can a Human Be More Righteous Than God?
‘Can a mortal be righteous before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?
Look, he does not trust his servants,
and he charges his messengers with error.
How much more people who dwell in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed before a moth.
Between morning and evening they are broken;
without anyone noticing, they perish forever.
Is not their tent-cord pulled up within them?
They die, and not in wisdom.’”