| 1 | Then Eliphaz the Themanite answered, and said: |
| 2 | If we begin to speak to thee, perhaps thou wilt take it ill, but who can withhold the words he hath conceived? |
| 3 | Behold thou hast taught many, and thou hast strengthened the weary hands: |
| 4 | Thy words have confirmed them that were staggering, and thou hast strengthened the trembling knees: |
| 5 | But now the scourge is come upon thee, and thou faintest: it hath touched thee, and thou art troubled. |
| 6 | Where is thy fear, thy fortitude, thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways? |
| 7 | Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or when were the just destroyed? |
| 8 | On the contrary I have seen those who work iniquity, and sow sorrows, and reap them, |
| 9 | Perishing by the blast of God, and consumed by the spirit of his wrath. |
| 10 | The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the whelps of lions are broken: |
| 11 | The tiger hath perished for want of prey, and the young lions are scattered abroad. |
| 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. |
| 13 | In the horror of a vision by night, when deep sleep is wont to hold men, |
| 14 | Fear seized upon me, and trembling, and all my bones were affrighted: |
| 15 | And when a spirit passed before me, the hair of my flesh stood up. |
| 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: |
| 17 | Shall man be justified in comparison of God, or shall a man be more pure than his maker? |
| 18 | Behold they that serve him are not steadfast, and in his angels he found wickedness: |
| 19 | How much more shall they that dwell in houses of clay, who have an earthly foundation, be consumed as with the moth? |
| 20 | From morning till evening they shall be cut down: and because no one understandeth, they shall perish for ever. |
| 21 | And they that shall be left, shall be taken away from them: they shall die, and not in wisdom. |
