New Living Translation

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied to Job: 2 “Will you be patient and let me say a word?<br>For who could keep from speaking out?<br> 3 “In the past you have encouraged many people;<br>you have strengthened those who were weak.<br> 4 Your words have supported those who were falling;<br>you encouraged those with shaky knees.<br> 5 But now when trouble strikes, you lose heart.<br>You are terrified when it touches you.<br> 6 Doesn’t your reverence for God (Elohim) give you confidence?<br>Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope?<br> 7 “Stop and think! Do the innocent die?<br>When have the upright been destroyed?<br> 8 My experience shows that those who plant trouble<br>and cultivate evil will harvest the same.<br> 9 A breath from God (Elohim) destroys them.<br>They vanish in a blast of his anger.<br> 10 The lion roars and the wildcat snarls,<br>but the teeth of strong lions will be broken.<br> 11 The fierce lion will starve for lack of prey,<br>and the cubs of the lioness will be scattered.<br> 12 “This truth was given to me in secret,<br>as though whispered in my ear.<br> 13 It came to me in a disturbing vision at night,<br>when people are in a deep sleep.<br> 14 Fear gripped me,<br>and my bones trembled.<br> 15 A spirit swept past my face,<br>and my hair stood on end.<br> 16 The spirit stopped, but I couldn’t see its shape.<br>There was a form before my eyes.<br>In the silence I heard a voice say,<br> 17 ‘Can a mortal be innocent before God (Elohim)?<br>Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’<br> 18 “If God (Elohim) does not trust his own angels<br>and has charged his messengers with foolishness,<br> 19 how much less will he trust people made of clay!<br>They are made of dust, crushed as easily as a moth.<br> 20 They are alive in the morning but dead by evening,<br>gone forever without a trace.<br> 21 Their tent-cords are pulled and the tent collapses,<br>and they die in ignorance.<br>