The Message Bible MSG
English Standard Version ESV
1 Then Eliphaz from Teman spoke up:
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Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 "Would you mind if I said something to you? Under the circumstances it's hard to keep quiet.
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“If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet 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.
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Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.
4 Your words have put stumbling people on their feet, put fresh hope in people about to collapse.
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Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble 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.
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But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.
6 But shouldn't your devout life give you confidence now? Shouldn't your exemplary life give you hope?
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Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your 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?
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“Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?
8 It's my observation that those who plow evil and sow trouble reap evil and trouble.
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As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.
9 One breath from God and they fall apart, one blast of his anger and there's nothing left of them.
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By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
10 The mighty lion, king of the beasts, roars mightily, but when he's toothless he's useless -
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The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken.
11 No teeth, no prey - and the cubs wander off to fend for themselves.
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The strong 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.
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“Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it.
13 It came in a scary dream one night, after I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep.
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Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
14 Dread stared me in the face, and Terror. I was scared to death - I shook from head to foot.
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dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
15 A spirit glided right in front of me - the hair on my head stood on end.
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A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.
16 I couldn't tell what it was that appeared there - a blur . . . and then I heard a muffled voice:
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It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice:
17 "'How can mere mortals be more righteous than God? How can humans be purer than their Creator?
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‘Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?
18 Why, God doesn't even trust his own servants, doesn't even cheer his angels,
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Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error;
19 So how much less these bodies composed of mud, fragile as moths?
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how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth.
20 These bodies of ours are here today and gone tomorrow, and no one even notices - gone without a trace.
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Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces; they perish forever without anyone regarding it.
21 When the tent stakes are ripped up, the tent collapses - we die and are never the wiser for having lived.'
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Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them, do they not die, and that 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.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2025