Parallel Bible results for "job 4"

Job 4

New Living Translation NLT

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied to Job:

2 “Will you be patient and let me say a word? For who could keep from speaking out?

3 “In the past you have encouraged many people; you have strengthened those who were weak.

4 Your words have supported those who were falling; you encouraged those with shaky knees.

5 But now when trouble strikes, you lose heart. You are terrified when it touches you.

6 Doesn’t your reverence for God give you confidence? Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope?

7 “Stop and think! Do the innocent die? When have the upright been destroyed?

8 My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same.

9 A breath from God destroys them. They vanish in a blast of his anger.

10 The lion roars and the wildcat snarls, but the teeth of strong lions will be broken.

11 The fierce lion will starve for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness will be scattered.

12 “This truth was given to me in secret, as though whispered in my ear.

13 It came to me in a disturbing vision at night, when people are in a deep sleep.

14 Fear gripped me, and my bones trembled.

15 A spirit swept past my face, and my hair stood on end.

16 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 ‘Can a mortal be innocent before God? Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’

18 “If God does not trust his own angels and has charged his messengers with foolishness,

19 how much less will he trust people made of clay! They are made of dust, crushed as easily as a moth.

20 They are alive in the morning but dead by evening, gone forever without a trace.

21 Their tent-cords are pulled and the tent collapses, and they die in ignorance.

The Message Bible MSG

1 Then Eliphaz from Teman spoke up:

2 "Would you mind if I said something to you? Under the circumstances it's hard to keep quiet.

3 You yourself have done this plenty of times, spoken words that clarify, encouraged those who were about to quit.

4 Your words have put stumbling people on their feet, put fresh hope in people about to collapse.

5 But now you're the one in trouble - you're hurting! You've been hit hard and you're reeling from the blow.

6 But shouldn't your devout life give you confidence now? Shouldn't your exemplary life 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?

8 It's my observation that those who plow evil and sow trouble reap evil and trouble.

9 One breath from God and they fall apart, one blast of his anger and there's nothing left of them.

10 The mighty lion, king of the beasts, roars mightily, but when he's toothless he's useless -

11 No teeth, no prey - and the cubs wander off to fend for themselves.

12 "A word came to me in secret - a mere whisper of a word, but I heard it clearly.

13 It came in a scary dream one night, after I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep.

14 Dread stared me in the face, and Terror. I was scared to death - I shook from head to foot.

15 A spirit glided right in front of me - the hair on my head stood on end.

16 I couldn't tell what it was that appeared there - a blur . . . and then I heard a muffled voice:

17 "'How can mere mortals be more righteous than God? How can humans be purer than their Creator?

18 Why, God doesn't even trust his own servants, doesn't even cheer his angels,

19 So how much less these bodies composed of mud, fragile as moths?

20 These bodies of ours are here today and gone tomorrow, and no one even notices - gone without a trace.

21 When the tent stakes are ripped up, the tent collapses - we die and are never the wiser for having lived.'