| Holman Christian Standard Bible | NET Bible |
| 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: | 1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: |
| 2Should anyone try to speak with you when you are exhausted? Yet who can keep from speaking? | 2"If someone should attempt a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can refrain from speaking? |
| 3Indeed, you have instructed many and have strengthened weak hands. | 3Look, you have instructed many; you have strengthened feeble hands. |
| 4Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling and braced the knees that were buckling. | 4Your words have supported those who stumbled, and you have strengthened the knees that gave way. |
| 5But now that this has happened to you, you have become exhausted. It strikes you, and you are dismayed. | 5But now the same thing comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are terrified. |
| 6Isn't your piety your confidence, and the integrity of your life your hope? | 6Is not your piety your confidence, and your blameless ways your hope? |
| 7Consider: who has perished when he was innocent? Where have the honest been destroyed? | 7Call to mind now: Who, being innocent, ever perished? And where were upright people ever destroyed? |
| 8In my experience, those who plow injustice and those who sow trouble reap the same. | 8Even as I have seen, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same. |
| 9They perish at a single blast from God and come to an end by the breath of His nostrils. | 9By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed. |
| 10The lion may roar and the fierce lion growl, but the fangs of young lions are broken. | 10There is the roaring of the lion and the growling of the young lion, but the teeth of the young lions are broken. |
| 11The strong lion dies if it catches no prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. | 11The mighty lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. |
| 12A word was brought to me in secret; my ears caught a whisper of it. | 12"Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear caught a whisper of it. |
| 13Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night, when deep sleep descends on men, | 13In the troubling thoughts of the dreams in the night when a deep sleep falls on men, |
| 14fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shake. | 14a trembling gripped me--and a terror!--and made all my bones shake. |
| 15A wind passed by me, and I shuddered with fear. | 15Then a breath of air passes by my face; it makes the hair of my flesh stand up. |
| 16A figure stood there, but I could not recognize its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes. I heard a quiet voice: | 16It stands still, but I cannot recognize its appearance; an image is before my eyes, and I hear a murmuring voice: |
| 17"Can a person be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?" | 17"Is a mortal man righteous before God? Or a man pure before his Creator? |
| 18If God puts no trust in His servants and He charges His angels with foolishness, | 18If God puts no trust in his servants and attributes folly to his angels, |
| 19how much more those who dwell in clay houses, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth! | 19how much more to those who live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth? |
| 20They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; they perish forever while no one notices. | 20They are destroyed between morning and evening; they perish forever without anyone regarding it. |
| 21Are their tent cords not pulled up? They die without wisdom. | 21Is not their excess wealth taken away from them? They die, yet without attaining wisdom. |
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