Round One: Eliphaz's Speech:
Have the innocent ever perished?
41Then Eliphaz the Temanite responded:
2If someone ventures to have a word with you, will you grow impatient?
But who can refrain from speaking up?
3You yourself have instructed many,
and you have strengthened weak hands.
4Your words have raised up people who were stumbling,
and you have given support to buckling knees.
5But now that this has happened to you, you grow impatient.
This strikes you and you are disturbed.
6Shouldn't your piety give you confidence?
Don't your blameless ways give you reason to hope?
7Now remember this:
Who has ever perished if he was innocent?
Where were the upright ever erased?
8This is what I have observed:
Those who plow evil and sow trouble will reap the same.
9By the breath of God they perish.
By the blast from his nostrils they come to an end.
10The lion roars, and the fierce lion growls,
but the teeth of the young lion are broken.[] 11The strong lion perishes from a lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12A word was delivered to me secretly.
My ears caught a whisper of it.
13In the middle of anxious thoughts arising from visions in the night,
at the time when deep sleep falls upon people,
14terror and trembling came over me
and made all my bones tremble.
15A spirit[] passed in front of my face. The hair on my body stood on end.
16A figure stood in front of me,
but I could not tell what it was.
A form stood before my eyes,
and I heard a quiet voice say,
17“Can a person be righteous before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?”[] 18If God does not trust his own servants,
if he charges his messengers with error,
19how much more those who dwell in clay houses,
whose foundations are in the dust,
who are crushed more quickly than a moth!
20From dawn to dusk they are smashed to pieces.
They perish forever, and no one even notices.
21Won't the ropes that hold up their tents be pulled up,[] so that they die without gaining wisdom?
