Job
Chapter 4
Eliphaz the Temanite, the first of Job's three friends to speak, answers Job's outburst. He reminds Job that Job once comforted other people, and asks why Job now falls apart when trouble reaches him. Eliphaz argues that innocent people do not perish, and that people who do harm reap harm. He then describes a night vision in which a voice asked whether any human can be more righteous than God.
Plain reading written for preteens. Clear and complete, at about a fifth grade reading level.
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
1Then Eliphaz, a man from Teman and one of Job's three friends, answered him. He said:
2If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?
2If someone tries to speak with you, will it wear you out? Still, who can keep from speaking?
3Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
3Think about it. You have taught many people. You have put strength back into tired hands.
4Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.
4Your words held up people who were stumbling. You steadied knees that were about to buckle.
5But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
5But now trouble has come to you, and you give up. It touches you, and you fall apart.
6Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?
6You respect God. Shouldn't that be what you lean on? Shouldn't your honest life be your hope?
7Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?
7Think hard, please. Has anyone innocent ever been destroyed? Where were good people ever wiped out?
8Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
8Here is what I have seen. People who plow up trouble and plant harm gather in the same crop.
9By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.
9God breathes on them, and they are gone. The blast of his anger burns them up.
10The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
10The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl. But the young lions get their teeth broken.
11The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion’s whelps are scattered abroad.
11The old lion dies because it can find nothing to hunt. The lioness's cubs are scattered.
12Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.
12Now, a word came to me in secret. My ear caught only a whisper of it.
13In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,
13It came in troubling pictures at night, at the hour when people fall into deep sleep.
14Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.
14Fear came over me, and shaking. It made every bone in my body shudder.
15Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:
15Then a spirit slipped past my face. The hair on my body stood up.
16It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,
16It stopped, but I could not make out its shape. A form stood before my eyes. It was silent. Then I heard a voice say:
17Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?
17Can a human being be more right than God? Can a man be purer than the God who made him?
18Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:
18Look, God does not even trust the servants who work for him. He finds fault with his angels.
19How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?
19So how much less will he trust people who live in houses of clay, built on dust, crushed as easily as a moth.
"Houses of clay" means human bodies, which the Bible says are made from dust. Eliphaz is calling people fragile, not describing real huts.
20They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it.
20Between morning and evening they are smashed to pieces. They are gone forever, and no one even notices.
21Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.
21Their tent cord is pulled up, and the tent falls. They die, and they never gained wisdom.
The KJV says "their excellency which is in them go away," which is hard to follow. The Hebrew picture is a tent cord being yanked out so the tent collapses.
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