Eliphaz: The Innocent Prosper

1But Eliphaz the Themanite, answering, said:

2If we start to speak to you, perhaps you will take it badly, but who can hold back the words he has conceived?

3Behold, you have taught many, and you have strengthened weary hands.

4Your words have reassured the wavering, and you have fortified the trembling knees.

5But now the scourge has overcome you, and you falter. It has touched you, and you are disturbed.

6Where is your reverence, your fortitude, your patience, and the perfection of your ways?

7Consider this, I beg you: who ever perished being innocent? Or when have the righteous been destroyed?

8In fact, I have instead seen those who work iniquity and who sow resentments, reap them,

9perishing by the breath of God, and being consumed by the wrath of his spirit.

10The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of young lions have been worn away.

11The tiger has perished because it does not have prey, and the young lions have been scattered.

12Furthermore, a word was spoken to me in secret, and, as if by theft, my ears received the pulse of its whisper.

13In the horror of a vision by night, when men are accustomed to be overtaken by a deep sleep,

14fear and trembling seized me and all my bones were terrified.

15And when a spirit passed before me, the hair on my body stood up.

16There appeared an image before my eyes, someone whose face I did not recognize, and I heard a voice like a gentle breeze.

17Should man be justified in relation to God, or will a man be more pure than his Maker?

18Behold, those who serve him are not steadfast, and in his angels he finds imperfection.

19How much more will those who live in houses of clay, which have an earthly foundation, be consumed like the moth?

20From morning all the way to evening, they will be cut down, and because no one understands, they will be destroyed without ceasing.

21But those who are left behind will be taken away from them; they will die, and not in wisdom.