4:1  THEN ELIPHAZ the Temanite answered and said,

4:2  If we venture to converse with you, will you be offended? Yet who can restrain himself from speaking?

4:3  Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.

4:4  Your words have held firm him who was falling, and you have strengthened the feeble knees.

4:5  But now it is come upon you, and you faint {and} are grieved; it touches you, and you are troubled {and} dismayed.

4:6  Is not your [reverent] fear of God your confidence and the integrity {and} uprightness of your ways your hope?

4:7  Think [earnestly], I beg of you: who, being innocent, ever perished? Or where were those upright {and} in right standing with God cut off?

4:8  As I myself have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble {and} mischief reap the same.

4:9  By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.

4:10  The roaring of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken.

4:11  The old {and} strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered abroad.

4:12  Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it.

4:13  In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

4:14  Fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones shake.

4:15  Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up!

4:16  [The spirit] stood still, but I could not discern the appearance of it. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, and then I heard a voice, saying,

4:17  Can mortal man be just before God, {or} be more right than He is? Can a man be pure before his Maker, {or} be more cleansed than He is?

4:18  Even in His [heavenly] servants He puts no trust {or} confidence, and His angels He charges with folly {and} error--

4:19  How much more those who dwell in houses (bodies) of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed like the moth.

4:20  Between morning and evening they are destroyed; without anyone noticing it they perish forever.

4:21  Is not their tent cord plucked up within them [so that the tent falls]? Do they not die, and that without [acquiring] wisdom?