1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied to Job:
2. “Will you be patient and let me say a word?For who could keep from speaking out?
3. “In the past you have encouraged many people;you have strengthened those who were weak.
4. Your words have supported those who were falling;you encouraged those with shaky knees.
5. But now when trouble strikes, you lose heart.You are terrified when it touches you.
6. Doesn’t your reverence for God give you confidence?Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope?
7. “Stop and think! Do the innocent die?When have the upright been destroyed?
8. My experience shows that those who plant troubleand cultivate evil will harvest the same.
9. A breath from God destroys them.They vanish in a blast of his anger.
10. The lion roars and the wildcat snarls,but the teeth of strong lions will be broken.
11. The fierce lion will starve for lack of prey,and the cubs of the lioness will be scattered.