Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible RHE
New Living Translation NLT
1 Then Eliphaz, the Themanite, answered, and said:
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Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied to Job:
2 If we begin to speak to thee, perhaps thou wilt take it ill; but who can withhold the words he hath conceived?
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“Will you be patient and let me say a word? For who could keep from speaking out?
3 Behold thou hast taught many, and thou hast strengthened the weary hands:
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“In the past you have encouraged many people; you have strengthened those who were weak.
4 Thy words have confirmed them that were staggering, and thou hast strengthened the trembling knees:
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Your words have supported those who were falling; you encouraged those with shaky knees.
5 But now the scourge is come upon thee, and thou faintest: It hath touched thee, and thou art troubled.
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But now when trouble strikes, you lose heart. You are terrified when it touches you.
6 Where is thy fear, thy fortitude, thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways?
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Doesn’t your reverence for God give you confidence? Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope?
7 Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or when were the just destroyed?
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“Stop and think! Do the innocent die? When have the upright been destroyed?
8 On the contrary, I have seen those who work iniquity, and sow sorrows, and reap them,
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My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same.
9 Perishing by the blast of God, and consumed by the spirit of his wrath.
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A breath from God destroys them. They vanish in a blast of his anger.
10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the whelps of lions, are broken:
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The lion roars and the wildcat snarls, but the teeth of strong lions will be broken.
11 The tiger hath perished for want of prey, and the young lions are scattered abroad.
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The fierce lion will starve for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness will be scattered.
12 Now there was a word spoken to me in private, and my ears by stealth, as it were, received the veins of its whisper.
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“This truth was given to me in secret, as though whispered in my ear.
13 In the horror of a vision by night, when deep sleep is wont to hold men,
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It came to me in a disturbing vision at night, when people are in a deep sleep.
14 Fear seized upon me, and trembling, and all my bones were affrighted:
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Fear gripped me, and my bones trembled.
15 And when a spirit passed before me, the hair of my flesh stood up.
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A spirit swept past my face, and my hair stood on end.
16 There stood one whose countenance I knew not, an image before my eyes, and I heard the voice, as it were, of a gentle wind.
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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 Shall man be justified in comparison of God, or shall a man be more pure than his maker?
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‘Can a mortal be innocent before God? Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’
18 Behold, they that serve him are not steadfast, and in his angels he found wickedness:
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“If God does not trust his own angels and has charged his messengers with foolishness,
19 How much more shall they that dwell in houses of clay, who have an earthly foundation, be consumed as with the moth?
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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 From morning till evening they shall be cut down: and because no one understandeth, they shall perish for ever.
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They are alive in the morning but dead by evening, gone forever without a trace.
21 And they that shall be left, shall be taken away from them: they shall die, and not in wisdom.
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Their tent-cords are pulled and the tent collapses, and they die in ignorance.