| 4:1 | Then Eliphaz from Teman spoke up: |
| 4:2 | "Would you mind if I said something to you? Under the circumstances it's hard to keep quiet. |
| 4:3 | You yourself have done this plenty of times, spoken words that clarify, encouraged those who were about to quit. |
| 4:4 | Your words have put stumbling people on their feet, put fresh hope in people about to collapse. |
| 4:5 | But now [you're] the one in trouble--you're hurting! You've been hit hard and you're reeling from the blow. |
| 4:6 | But shouldn't your devout life give you confidence now? Shouldn't your exemplary life give you hope? |
| 4:7 | "Think! Has a truly innocent person ever ended up on the scrap heap? Do genuinely upright people ever lose out in the end? |
| 4:8 | It's my observation that those who plow evil and sow trouble reap evil and trouble. |
| 4:9 | One breath from God and they fall apart, one blast of his anger and there's nothing left of them. |
| 4:10 | The mighty lion, king of the beasts, roars mightily, but when he's toothless he's useless-- |
| 4:11 | No teeth, no prey--and the cubs wander off to fend for themselves. |
| 4:12 | "A word came to me in secret--a mere whisper of a word, but I heard it clearly. |
| 4:13 | It came in a scary dream one night, after I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep. |
| 4:14 | Dread stared me in the face, and Terror. I was scared to death--I shook from head to foot. |
| 4:15 | A spirit glided right in front of me--the hair on my head stood on end. |
| 4:16 | I couldn't tell what it was that appeared there--a blur...and then I heard a muffled voice: |
| 4:17 | "'How can mere mortals be more righteous than God? How can humans be purer than their Creator? |
| 4:18 | Why, God doesn't even trust his own servants, doesn't even cheer his angels, |
| 4:19 | So how much less these bodies composed of mud, fragile as moths? |
| 4:20 | These bodies of ours are here today and gone tomorrow, and no one even notices--gone without a trace. |
| 4:21 | When the tent stakes are ripped up, the tent collapses--we die and are never the wiser for having lived.' |
Job 4 - The Message Bible
