| New International Version | NET Bible |
| 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: | 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: |
| 2"If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking? | 2"If someone should attempt a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can refrain from speaking? |
| 3Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands. | 3Look, you have instructed many; you have strengthened feeble hands. |
| 4Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees. | 4Your words have supported those who stumbled, and you have strengthened the knees that gave way. |
| 5But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed. | 5But now the same thing comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are terrified. |
| 6Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope? | 6Is not your piety your confidence, and your blameless ways your hope? |
| 7"Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? | 7Call to mind now: Who, being innocent, ever perished? And where were upright people ever destroyed? |
| 8As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. | 8Even as I have seen, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same. |
| 9At the breath of God they perish; at the blast of his anger they are no more. | 9By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed. |
| 10The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions are broken. | 10There is the roaring of the lion and the growling of the young lion, but the teeth of the young lions are broken. |
| 11The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. | 11The mighty lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. |
| 12"A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it. | 12"Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear caught a whisper of it. |
| 13Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people, | 13In the troubling thoughts of the dreams in the night when a deep sleep falls on men, |
| 14fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake. | 14a trembling gripped me--and a terror!--and made all my bones shake. |
| 15A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. | 15Then a breath of air passes by my face; it makes the hair of my flesh stand up. |
| 16It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice: | 16It stands still, but I cannot recognize its appearance; an image is before my eyes, and I hear a murmuring voice: |
| 17Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker? | 17"Is a mortal man righteous before God? Or a man pure before his Creator? |
| 18If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error, | 18If God puts no trust in his servants and attributes folly to his angels, |
| 19how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth! | 19how much more to those who live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth? |
| 20Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish forever. | 20They are destroyed between morning and evening; they perish forever without anyone regarding it. |
| 21Are not the cords of their tent pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?' | 21Is not their excess wealth taken away from them? They die, yet without attaining wisdom. |
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