Eliphaz: The Innocent Prosper 1 UDB Then Eliphaz replied to Job. He said, BSB BSB: Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 UDB "Will you please allow me to say something to you? I am not able to remain silent any longer. BSB BSB: “If one ventures a word with you, will you be wearied? Yet who can keep from speaking?
3 UDB In the past, you have instructed many people, and you have encouraged those for whom it was difficult to trust in God. BSB BSB: Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.
4 UDB In the past, when you spoke to others who were suffering, you helped them; they were able to rejoice again because of God. BSB BSB: Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.
5 UDB But now, when you yourself suffer from disasters, you become discouraged. The disasters hit you, and you are stunned. BSB BSB: But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.
6 UDB You say that you honor God; so you should be trusting in him, for him not to let you suffer. If you really had not sinned, you would have been confident that God would not let these disasters happen to you! BSB BSB: Is your reverence not your confidence, and the uprightness of your ways your hope?
7 UDB Think about this: No innocent people ever die when they are still young! God never kills innocent people! BSB BSB: Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?
8 UDB I have seen this happen: if farmers plant bad seeds, they do not harvest good crops; anyone who starts trouble for others later brings trouble on himself. BSB BSB: As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.
9 UDB These people die when God commands them to, because he is very angry with them. BSB BSB: By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.
10 UDB Even though wicked people may be very powerful like young lions, 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 UDB They will die like older lions that starve to death when there are no animals left to eat. Their children will scatter from each other like young lions that separate from each other to find food. BSB BSB: The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12 UDB I 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 UDB He spoke to me at night when I was having a bad dream that disturbed me. BSB BSB: In disquieting visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
14 UDB It caused me to be afraid and tremble; it caused all my bones to shake. BSB BSB: fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shudder.
15 UDB A ghost glided past my face and 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 UDB It stopped, but I could not see what it really looked like. But I knew that there was some being in front of me, and it said in a quiet voice, 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 UDB 'No human being can be more righteous than God. No man can be better than God, who made him. BSB BSB: ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?
18 UDB God cannot be sure that his own angels will always do what is right; he declares that some of them have done wrong. BSB BSB: If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error,
19 UDB So he certainly cannot trust human beings whom he has made from dust and clay, human beings, whom disaster crushes as easily as you can crush a moth! 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 UDB People are sometimes in good health in the morning, but by the evening they are dead. They are gone forever and no one even pays attention. BSB BSB: They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; unnoticed, they perish forever.
21 UDB Their families and possessions are like tents that collapse suddenly when you pull up their stakes; they perish suddenly without anyone ever knowing why.'" 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.