74 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
74 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
Eliphaz Speaks
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# Chapter 4
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1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
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2. Should anyone try to speak with you
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when you are exhausted?
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Yet who can keep from speaking?
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3. Indeed, you have instructed many
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and have strengthened weak hands.
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4. Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling
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and braced the knees that were buckling.
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5. But now that this has happened to you,
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you have become exhausted.
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It strikes you, and you are dismayed.
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6. Isn't your piety your confidence,
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and the integrity of your life your hope?
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7. Consider: Who has perished when he was innocent?
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Where have the honest been destroyed?
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8. In my experience, those who plow injustice
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and those who sow trouble reap the same.
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9. They perish at a single blast from God
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and come to an end by the breath of his nostrils.
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10. The lion may roar and the fierce lion growl,
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but the teeth of young lions are broken.
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11. The strong lion dies if it catches no prey,
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and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
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12. A word was brought to me in secret;
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my ears caught a whisper of it.
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13. Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night,
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when deep sleep comes over men,
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14. fear and trembling came over me
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and made all my bones shake.
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15. I felt a draft on my face,
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and the hair on my body stood up.
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16. A figure stood there,
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but I could not recognize its appearance;
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a form loomed before my eyes.
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I heard a whispering voice:
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17. "Can a mortal be righteous before God?
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Can a man be more pure than his Maker?"
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18. If God puts no trust in his servants
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and he charges his angels with foolishness,
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19. how much more those who dwell in clay houses,
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whose foundation is in the dust,
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who are crushed like a moth!
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20. They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk;
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they perish forever while no one notices.
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21. Are their tent cords not pulled up?
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They die without wisdom.
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