Chapter 4

Thereupon Eliphaz the Themanite made answer:

Speak we, it may be thou wilt take our words amiss, yet speech will out.

Well thou knewest how to teach others, strengthen the drooping hands,

give courage to the waverer, support to flagging knees, by counsel of thine.

Now the blow has fallen on thyself, and thy strength is gone; the nearer neighbourhood of misfortune unmans thee.

No more we hear now of that fear of God, that life perfectly lived, which once gave thee confidence, gave thee strength to endure!

And, sure enough, ruin never fell yet on the innocent; never yet was an upright soul lost to memory.

The men that traffic in wrong-doing, that sow a crop of mischief they themselves must reap at last, these I have seen undone;

one breath, one blast of the divine anger withers them quite, and they are gone.

Roar lion and growl lioness, the fangs of the lion-cubs will yet be shattered.

For lack of prey, the tiger goes his way at last, the young lions wander wide.

Listen; here is a secret that was made known to me; it was but the breath of a whisper overheard.

It was the hour when night visions breed disquiet, as men lie chained by sleep;

fear took hold of me, a fit of trembling that thrilled my whole frame,

and made every hair bristle. All at once a spirit came beside me and stopped; there it stood,

no face I knew, yet I could see the form of it, and catch its voice, light as a rustling breeze.

Can man have right on his side, the voice asked, when he is matched with God? Can a mortal creature shew blameless in its Creator’s presence?

Nay, in his own retinue God finds loyalty wanting; angels may err.

What, then, of Man, earth-bound in his house of clay, eaten away by the moth of time?

What of Man, cut down between morn and eve, doomed to perish unregarded,

even the straggler marching on at last?3 Will he not die before he learns wisdom?