Job 4

Then Eliphaz, Job’s friend from the town of Teman, replied to what Job had said. Eliphaz said, 2 “Will you please allow me to say something to you? I feel compelled to speak to you. 3 You yourself have given good advice to many people. You have encouraged people who were discouraged. \* 4 When people were struggling, you were able to say the right thing to help them. You enabled them to be brave again. 5 But now that you yourself are suffering, you have become discouraged. You are not facing your troubles bravely {as you have helped others to do}. 6 You should be confident because you honor God. You should be hopeful because you conduct yourself with integrity. \* 7 Think about this: God does not destroy people who are innocent! No, God never kills people who are doing what is right! 8 I know from experience that this is true: When people plan to do bad things to others, those bad things happen to them instead. 9 God becomes very angry with them {because of the wrong things they plan to do}, and so God commands that they will die, and they do die. \* 10 Wicked people may boast and threaten, but God destroys them. 11 Those wicked people will have nothing in the end, like lions that starve to death because God keeps them from catching any prey. Different relatives will have to take care of the children of those wicked people, as if they were lion cubs whose parents caught no prey and they had to separate from each other in order to search for food. \* 12 I once heard a message that someone came and whispered to me. 13 One night I fell deeply asleep and had a dream that made me very perplexed. \* 14 I was so scared that I started to shake all over. 15 Then a spirit slid into view right in front of me! This caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand straight up. \* 16 The spirit stopped there, but I could not see what it really looked like. However, I knew that there was some being in front of me. At first it did not speak, but then it said, 17 ‘No human being can be more righteous than God. No person can be better than his Creator. \* 18 Consider this: God recognizes that even his own angels may not always do what is right. If they do not act wisely, he corrects them. 19 So God is even more careful to discipline human beings, knowing how very frail they are. \* 20 {Humans are so fragile that} they can be here today and gone tomorrow. {And humans are so insignificant that} a person can die, never to return to earth, and no one will even notice. 21 Humans are {fragile,} like tents that collapse if someone pulls up their stakes. And they may live their whole lives on earth without ever learning to be wise.’ \*