1 ARST Then Eliphaz, Job’ s friend from the town of Teman, replied to what Job had said. Eliphaz said, BSB BSB: Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 ARST “Will you please allow me to say something to you? I feel compelled to speak to you. BSB BSB: “If one ventures a word with you, will you be wearied? Yet who can keep from speaking?
3 ARST You yourself have given good advice to many people. You have encouraged people who were discouraged. BSB BSB: Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.
4 ARST When people were struggling, you were able to say the right thing to help them. You enabled them to be brave again. BSB BSB: Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.
5 ARST But now that you yourself are suffering, you have become discouraged. You are not facing your troubles bravely{ as you have helped others to do}. BSB BSB: But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.
6 ARST You should be confident because you honor God. You should be hopeful because you conduct yourself with integrity. BSB BSB: Is your reverence not your confidence, and the uprightness of your ways your hope?
7 ARST Think about this: God does not destroy people who are innocent! No, God never kills people who are doing what is right! BSB BSB: Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?
8 ARST I know from experience that this is true: When people plan to do bad things to others, those bad things happen to them instead. BSB BSB: As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.
9 ARST God becomes very angry with them{ because of the wrong things they plan to do}, and so God commands that they will die, and they do die. BSB BSB: By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.
10 ARST Wicked people may boast and threaten, but God destroys them. BSB BSB: The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.
11 ARST Those wicked people will have nothing in the end, like lions that starve to death because God keeps them from catching any prey. Different relatives will have to take care of the children of those wicked people, as if they were lion cubs whose parents caught no prey and they had to separate from each other in order to search for food. BSB BSB: The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12 ARST I once heard a message that someone came and whispered to me. BSB BSB: Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it.
13 ARST One night I fell deeply asleep and had a dream that made me very perplexed. BSB BSB: In disquieting visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
14 ARST I was so scared that I started to shake all over. BSB BSB: fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shudder.
15 ARST Then a spirit slid into view right in front of me! This caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand straight up. BSB BSB: Then a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled.
16 ARST The spirit stopped there, but I could not see what it really looked like. However, I knew that there was some being in front of me. At first it did not speak, but then it said, BSB BSB: It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes, and I heard a whispering voice:
17 ARST ‘No human being can be more righteous than God. No person can be better than his Creator. BSB BSB: ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?
18 ARST Consider this: God recognizes that even his own angels may not always do what is right. If they do not act wisely, he corrects them. BSB BSB: If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error,
19 ARST So God is even more careful to discipline human beings, knowing how very frail they are. BSB BSB: how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!
20 ARST { Humans are so fragile that} they can be here today and gone tomorrow.{ And humans are so insignificant that} a person can die, never to return to earth, and no one will even notice. BSB BSB: They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; unnoticed, they perish forever.
21 ARST Humans are{ fragile,} like tents that collapse if someone pulls up their stakes. And they may live their whole lives on earth without ever learning to be wise.’ BSB BSB: Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.