² Eliphaz: Could you bear it if someone were to speak?
        Ah, but who can hold his tongue in such a situation?
³     Look back, and think on the many you have taught;
        you have strengthened the weak hands of the suffering.
⁴     Your words propped up the tottering;
        you have strengthened mourners’ wobbly knees.
⁵     May my words help you in that way, now that trouble arrives and you despair.
        It extends its hand, crushes you, and you are overwhelmed.
⁶     Isn’t your fear of God true confidence
        and your unswerving commitment genuine hope?

⁷     Take pause; scan your memory:
        Who ever died among the innocent?
    And when have the righteous ever met with destruction?
⁸     The way I see it, those who pull the pernicious plow,
    Who sow sorrow’s seeds, reap the same at harvest.
⁹     By God’s breath, they meet destruction;
        when His anger explodes, they meet their end.
¹⁰     O the bluster of humanity!
        The lion roars! The king of beasts thunders!
    Still the young lions’ teeth are shattered.
¹¹     The old lion dies for lack of prey,
        and the whole pride is scattered.

¹²     Now, listen: a secret word was delivered to me;
        my ears caught hold of a whisper.
¹³     In the anxiety of a nightmare—
        while deep sleep falls on humans—
¹⁴     Fear took me by my right arm, terror by my left,
        and they shook me, they did!—made my bones rattle.
¹⁵     Then a wind blew through, a divine breath skimming my face.
        Every hair on my body stood on end.
¹⁶     It came to a stop, but I couldn’t make it out—
        some form there before me, then a hushed voice breaking the silence:
¹⁷     “Can a mortal stand innocent before God?
        Can a man or even a hero be pure before his Creator?”
¹⁸     If God is unsure of His own servants,
        and in His holy attendants He finds fault,
¹⁹     How much more those whose bodies come from clay,
        whose skeletons are dust, are crushed like a moth.
²⁰     From morning to evening, their bodies are broken to pieces,
        ground back into dirt, unseen, gone forever.
²¹     When the cords of their tents are pulled up,
        don’t they die, none the wiser?