Parallel Bible results for "job 4"

Job 4

MSG

NIV

1 Then Eliphaz from Teman spoke up:
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 "Would you mind if I said something to you? Under the circumstances it's hard to keep quiet.
2 “If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking?
3 You yourself have done this plenty of times, spoken words that clarify, encouraged those who were about to quit.
3 Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands.
4 Your words have put stumbling people on their feet, put fresh hope in people about to collapse.
4 Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees.
5 But now you're the one in trouble - you're hurting! You've been hit hard and you're reeling from the blow.
5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
6 But shouldn't your devout life give you confidence now? Shouldn't your exemplary life give you hope?
6 Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?
7 "Think! Has a truly innocent person ever ended up on the scrap heap? Do genuinely upright people ever lose out in the end?
7 “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?
8 It's my observation that those who plow evil and sow trouble reap evil and trouble.
8 As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.
9 One breath from God and they fall apart, one blast of his anger and there's nothing left of them.
9 At the breath of God they perish; at the blast of his anger they are no more.
10 The mighty lion, king of the beasts, roars mightily, but when he's toothless he's useless -
10 The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.
11 No teeth, no prey - and the cubs wander off to fend for themselves.
11 The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12 "A word came to me in secret - a mere whisper of a word, but I heard it clearly.
12 “A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it.
13 It came in a scary dream one night, after I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep.
13 Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people,
14 Dread stared me in the face, and Terror. I was scared to death - I shook from head to foot.
14 fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake.
15 A spirit glided right in front of me - the hair on my head stood on end.
15 A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end.
16 I couldn't tell what it was that appeared there - a blur . . . and then I heard a muffled voice:
16 It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice:
17 "'How can mere mortals be more righteous than God? How can humans be purer than their Creator?
17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?
18 Why, God doesn't even trust his own servants, doesn't even cheer his angels,
18 If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error,
19 So how much less these bodies composed of mud, fragile as moths?
19 how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth!
20 These bodies of ours are here today and gone tomorrow, and no one even notices - gone without a trace.
20 Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish forever.
21 When the tent stakes are ripped up, the tent collapses - we die and are never the wiser for having lived.'
21 Are not the cords of their tent pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.