| 1 |
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
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| 2 |
“If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?
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| 3 |
Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands.
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| 4 |
Your words have supported him who was falling, you have made the feeble knees firm.
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| 5 |
But now it has come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled.
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| 6 |
Isn’t your piety your confidence? Isn’t the integrity of your ways your hope?
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| 7 |
“Remember, now, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?
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| 8 |
According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble, reap the same.
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| 9 |
By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed.
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| 10 |
The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
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| 11 |
The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.
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| 12 |
“Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear received a whisper of it.
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| 13 |
In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
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| 14 |
fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
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| 15 |
Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up.
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| 16 |
It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,
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| 17 |
‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
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| 18 |
Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels with error.
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| 19 |
How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!
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| 20 |
Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it.
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| 21 |
Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’
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