4:1 Then Eliphaz, the Themanite, answered, and said:

4:2 If we begin to speak to thee, perhaps thou wilt take it ill; but who can withhold the words he hath conceived?

4:3 Behold thou hast taught many, and thou hast strengthened the weary hands:

4:4 Thy words have confirmed them that were staggering, and thou hast strengthened the trembling knees:

4:5 But now the scourge is come upon thee, and thou faintest: It hath touched thee, and thou art troubled.

4:6 Where is thy fear, thy fortitude, thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways?

4:7 Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or when were the just destroyed?

4:8 On the contrary, I have seen those who work iniquity, and sow sorrows, and reap them,

4:9 Perishing by the blast of God, and consumed by the spirit of his wrath.

4:10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the whelps of lions, are broken:

4:11 The tiger hath perished for want of prey, and the young lions are scattered abroad.

4:12 Now there was a word spoken to me in private, and my ears by stealth, as it were, received the veins of its whisper.

4:13 In the horror of a vision by night, when deep sleep is wont to hold men,

4:14 Fear seized upon me, and trembling, and all my bones were affrighted:

4:15 And when a spirit passed before me, the hair of my flesh stood up.

4:16 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.

4:17 Shall man be justified in comparison of God, or shall a man be more pure than his maker?

4:18 Behold, they that serve him are not steadfast, and in his angels he found wickedness:

4:19 How much more shall they that dwell in houses of clay, who have an earthly foundation, be consumed as with the moth?

4:20 From morning till evening they shall be cut down: and because no one understandeth, they shall perish for ever.

4:21 And they that shall be left, shall be taken away from them: they shall die, and not in wisdom.