The Message Bible MSG
New Living Translation NLT
1 Then Eliphaz from Teman spoke up:
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Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied to Job:
2 "Would you mind if I said something to you? Under the circumstances it's hard to keep quiet.
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“Will you be patient and let me say a word? For who could keep from speaking out?
3 You yourself have done this plenty of times, spoken words that clarify, encouraged those who were about to quit.
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“In the past you have encouraged many people; you have strengthened those who were weak.
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 supported those who were falling; you encouraged those with shaky 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 when trouble strikes, you lose heart. You are terrified when it touches you.
6 But shouldn't your devout life give you confidence now? Shouldn't your exemplary life give you hope?
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Doesn’t your reverence for God give you confidence? Doesn’t your life of integrity give you 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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“Stop and think! Do the innocent die? When have the upright been destroyed?
8 It's my observation that those who plow evil and sow trouble reap evil and trouble.
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My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest 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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A breath from God destroys them. They vanish in a blast of his anger.
10 The mighty lion, king of the beasts, roars mightily, but when he's toothless he's useless -
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The lion roars and the wildcat snarls, but the teeth of strong lions will be broken.
11 No teeth, no prey - and the cubs wander off to fend for themselves.
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The fierce lion will starve for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness will be scattered.
12 "A word came to me in secret - a mere whisper of a word, but I heard it clearly.
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“This truth was given to me in secret, as though whispered in my ear.
13 It came in a scary dream one night, after I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep.
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It came to me in a disturbing vision at night, when people are in a deep sleep.
14 Dread stared me in the face, and Terror. I was scared to death - I shook from head to foot.
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Fear gripped me, and my bones trembled.
15 A spirit glided right in front of me - the hair on my head stood on end.
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A spirit swept past my face, and my hair stood on end.
16 I couldn't tell what it was that appeared there - a blur . . . and then I heard a muffled voice:
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The spirit stopped, but I couldn’t see its shape. There was a form before my eyes. In the silence I heard a voice say,
17 "'How can mere mortals be more righteous than God? How can humans be purer than their Creator?
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‘Can a mortal be innocent before God? Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’
18 Why, God doesn't even trust his own servants, doesn't even cheer his angels,
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“If God does not trust his own angels and has charged his messengers with foolishness,
19 So how much less these bodies composed of mud, fragile as moths?
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how much less will he trust people made of clay! They are made of dust, crushed as easily as a 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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They are alive in the morning but dead by evening, gone forever without a trace.
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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Their tent-cords are pulled and the tent collapses, and they die in ignorance.
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.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.