The Reading
Job 4
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
"If someone would test a word with you, would you be offended?
But who can refrain from speaking?
Look, you have instructed many,
and you have strengthened weak hands.
Your words have raised up the one who stumbles,
and you have strengthened knees giving way.
But now it has come to you, and you are worn out;
it touches you, and you are horrified.
Is not your fear in God your confidence?
Is not your hope even the integrity of your ways?
"Think now, who has perished who is innocent?
Or where are the upright destroyed?
Just as I have seen, plowers of mischief
and sowers of trouble will reap it.
By the breath of God they perish,
and by the blast of his anger they come to an end.
The roar of the lion and the voice of a lion in its prime,
and the teeth of the young lions are broken.
The lion is perishing without prey,
and the lion's whelps are scattered.
"And a word came stealing to me,
and my ear received the whisper from it.
Amid troubling thoughts from night visions,
at the falling of deep sleep on men,
dread met me, and trembling,
and it made many of my bones shake.
And a spirit glided before my face;
the hair of my flesh bristled.
It stood still, but I could not recognize its appearance;
a form was before my eyes;
there was a hush, and I heard a voice:
'Can a human being be more righteous than God,
or can a man be more pure than his Maker?
Look, he does not trust in his servants
and he charges his angels with error.
How much more dwellers in clay houses,
whose foundation is in the dust?
They are crushed like a moth.
Between morning and evening they are destroyed;
without anyone regarding it they perish forever.
Is not their tent cord pulled up within them?
They die, but not in wisdom.'
Job 5
"Call now, is there anyone answering you?
And to which of the holy ones will you turn?
For vexation will slay the fool,
and jealousy will kill the simple.
I have seen a fool taking root,
but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.
His children are far from deliverance,
and they are crushed in the gate,
and there is no deliverer—
whose harvest the hungry eats,
and he takes it from behind the thorns;
and the thirsty pants after their wealth.
Indeed, mischief does not come from the dust,
and trouble does not sprout from the earth.
But a human being is born to trouble,
and they soar aloft like sparks.
"But I myself will seek God,
and to God I would commit my cause.
He is doing great and unsearchable things,
marvelous things without number—
the one who is giving rain on the surface of the earth
and is sending water on the surface of the fields,
to set the lowly on high,
and those mourning are lifted to safety.
He is frustrating the devices of the crafty,
and their hands do not achieve success.
He is capturing the wise in their craftiness,
and the schemes of the wily are rushed.
In the daytime they meet with darkness,
and they grope at noon as in the night.
And he saves from the sword of their mouth,
even the poor from the hand of the strong.
So there is hope for the powerless,
and wickedness shuts its mouth.
"Look, happy is the human being whom God reproves;
and you must not despise the discipline of Shaddai,
for he himself wounds, but he binds up;
he strikes, but his hands heal.
From six troubles he will deliver you,
and in seven evil shall not touch you.
In famine he will redeem you from death,
and in war from the power of the sword.
From the scourge of the tongue you shall be hidden,
and you shall not be afraid of destruction when it comes.
At destruction and famine you shall laugh,
and you shall not fear the wild animals of the earth.
For your covenant will be with the stones of the field,
and the wild animals of the field will be at peace with you.
And you shall know that your tent is safe,
and you will inspect your fold, and you shall not be missing anything.