1Then Eliphaz the Thaemanite answered and said,

2Have you been often spoken to in distress? but who shall endure the force of your words?

3For whereas you have instructed many, and have strengthened the hands of the weak one,

4and have supported the failing with words, and have imparted courage to feeble knees.

5Yet now that pain has come upon you, and touched you, you are troubled.

6Is not your fear founded in folly, your hope also, and the mischief of your way?

7Remember then who has perished, being pure? or when were the true-hearted utterly destroyed?

8Accordingly as I have seen men ploughing barren places, and they that sow them will reap sorrows for themselves.

9They shall perish by the command of the Lord, and shall be utterly consumed by the breath of his wrath.

10The strength of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the exulting cry of serpents are quenched.

11The old lion has perished for lack of food, and the lions' whelps have forsaken one another.

12But if there had been any truth in your words, none of these evils would have befallen you. Shall not my ear receive excellent revelations from him?

13But as when terror falls upon men, with dread and a sound in the night,

14horror and trembling seized me, and caused all my bones greatly to shake.

15And a spirit came before my face; and my hair and flesh quivered.

16I arose and perceived it not: I looked, and there, was no form before my eyes: but I only heard a breath and a voice, saying,

17What, shall a mortal be pure before the Lord? or a man be blameless in regard to his works?

18Whereas he trust not in his servants, and perceives perverseness in his angels.

19But as for them that dwell in houses of clay, of whom we also are formed of the same clay, he smites them like a moth.

20And from the morning to evening they no longer exist: they have perished, because they can’t help themselves.

21For he blows upon them, and they are withered: they have perished for lack of wisdom.