Chapter 4

  Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,  

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  If we essay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can refrain from speaking?  

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  Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.  

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  Thy words have upheld him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.  

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  But now it hath come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.  

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  Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?  

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  Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off;  

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  Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.  

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  By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.  

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  The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.  

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  The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad.  

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  Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a small sound of it.  

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  In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men.  

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  Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.  

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  Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:  

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  It stood still, but I could not discern its form: an image was before my eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,  

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  Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?  

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  Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:  

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  How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth?  

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  They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it.  

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  Doth not their excellence which is in them depart? they die, even without wisdom.  

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