The Message Bible MSG
World English Bible WEB
1 Then Eliphaz from Teman spoke up:
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Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
2 "Would you mind if I said something to you? Under the circumstances it's hard to keep quiet.
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"If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself 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, 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 supported him who was falling, 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 is come to you, and you faint; It touches you, and you are troubled.
6 But shouldn't your devout life give you confidence now? Shouldn't your exemplary life give you hope?
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Isn't your piety your confidence, 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, now, whoever perished, being innocent? 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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According to what 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, By the blast of his anger are they consumed.
10 The mighty lion, king of the beasts, roars mightily, but when he's toothless he's useless -
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The roaring of the lion, and 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 old lion perishes for lack of prey, The whelps of the lioness are scattered abroad.
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 thing was secretly brought to me, My ear received a 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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In thoughts from the 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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Fear came on 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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Then a spirit passed before 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 couldn't discern the appearance of it; A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,
17 "'How can mere mortals be more righteous than God? How can humans be purer than their Creator?
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'Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
18 Why, God doesn't even trust his own servants, doesn't even cheer his angels,
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Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels 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 before 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 destroyed. They perish forever without any 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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Isn't their tent-cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.'