Dual Panel1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied to Job:
2"Will you be patient and let me say a word? For who could keep from speaking out?
3"In the past you have encouraged many a troubled soul to trust in God; you have supported those who were weak.
4Your words have strengthened the fallen; you steadied those who wavered.
5But now when trouble strikes, you faint and are broken.
6Does your reverence for God give you no confidence? Shouldn’t you believe that God will care for those who are upright?
7"Stop and think! Does the innocent person perish? When has the upright person been destroyed?
8My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same.
9They perish by a breath from God. They vanish in a blast of his anger.
10Though they are fierce young lions, they will all be broken and destroyed.
11The fierce lion will starve, and the cubs of the lioness will be scattered.
12"This truth was given me in secret, as though whispered in my ear.
13It came in a vision at night as others slept.
14Fear gripped me; I trembled and shook with terror.
15A spirit swept past my face. Its wind sent shivers up my spine.
16It stopped, but I couldn’t see its shape. There was a form before my eyes, and a hushed voice said,
17‘Can a mortal be just and upright before God? Can a person be pure before the Creator?’
18"If God cannot trust his own angels and has charged some of them with folly,
19how much less will he trust those made of clay! Their foundation is dust, and they are crushed as easily as moths.
20They are alive in the morning, but by evening they are dead, gone forever without a trace.
21Their tent collapses; they die in ignorance.