Job 4

Eliphaz tries to comfort Job

1 Then Eliphaz, a native of Teman, responded:
2 If one tries to answer you, will you be annoyed? But who can hold words back?
3 Look, you've instructed many and given strength to drooping hands.
4 Your words have raised up the falling; you've steadied failing knees.
5 But now it comes to you, and you are dismayed; it has struck you, and you are frightened.
6 Isn't your religion the source of your confidence; the integrity of your conduct, the source of your hope?

Sinners don’t live long

7 Think! What innocent person has ever perished? When have those who do the right thing been destroyed?
8 As I've observed, those who plow sin and sow trouble will harvest it.
9 When God breathes deeply, they perish; by a breath of his nostril they are annihilated.
10 The roar of a lion and snarl of the king of beasts— yet the teeth of lions are shattered;
11 the lion perishes without prey, and its cubs are scattered.

A frightening dream

12 But a word sneaked up on me; my ears caught a hint of it.
13 In profound thoughts, visions of night, when deep sleep falls on people,
14 fear and dread struck me; all of my bones shook.
15 A breeze swept by my face; the hair of my skin bristled.
16 It stopped. I didn't recognize its visible form, although a figure was in front of my eyes. Silence! Then I heard a voice:
17 "Can a human be more righteous than God, a person purer than their maker?"

Its interpretation

18 If he doesn't trust his servants and levels a charge against his messengers,
19 how much less those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in dust, and who are crushed like a moth?
20 They are smashed between morning and evening; they perish forever without anyone knowing.
21 Isn't their tent cord pulled up? They die without wisdom.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Heb lacks the source.
  • [b]. Some interpreters end the quotation here rather than 4:17.

Job 4 Commentaries

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