Job 4

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

Eliphaz the Temanite speaks to Job, noting that Job previously instructed and strengthened others, but now becomes weary and dismayed when trouble strikes him. Eliphaz questions whether Job's reverence and uprightness are his confidence, arguing that the innocent do not perish and those who sow trouble reap it. He then describes a secret nocturnal vision where fear and trembling came over him as a spirit glided past his face. A form stood still before him, and a whispering voice asked whether a mortal can be more righteous than God, noting that God charges His angels with error and does not trust His servants. The voice emphasizes the fragility of humans who dwell in houses of clay, stating that they are crushed like a moth and perish forever without wisdom.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: ²“If one ventures a word with you, will you be wearied? Yet who can keep from speaking? ³Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands. ⁴Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling. ⁵But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed. ⁶Is your reverence not your confidence, and the uprightness of your ways your hope? ⁷Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed? ⁸As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same. ⁹By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed. ¹⁰The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken. ¹¹The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. ¹²Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it. ¹³In disquieting visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men, ¹⁴fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shudder. ¹⁵Then a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled. ¹⁶It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes, and I heard a whispering voice: ¹⁷‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker? ¹⁸If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error, ¹⁹how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth! ²⁰They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; unnoticed, they perish forever. ²¹Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’

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Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.