Job
from The Message Bible
[index] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42]

Job 4:1  Then Eliphaz from Teman spoke up:

Job 4:2  "Would you mind if I said something to you? Under the circumstances it's hard to keep quiet.

Job 4:3  You yourself have done this plenty of times, spoken words that clarify, encouraged those who were about to quit.

Job 4:4  Your words have put stumbling people on their feet, put fresh hope in people about to collapse.

Job 4:5  But now you're the one in trouble--you're hurting! You've been hit hard and you're reeling from the blow.

Job 4:6  But shouldn't your devout life give you confidence now? Shouldn't your exemplary life give you hope?

Job 4:7  "Think! Has a truly innocent person ever ended up on the scrap heap? Do genuinely upright people ever lose out in the end?

Job 4:8  It's my observation that those who plow evil and sow trouble reap evil and trouble.

Job 4:9  One breath from God and they fall apart, one blast of his anger and there's nothing left of them.

Job 4:10  The mighty lion, king of the beasts, roars mightily, but when he's toothless he's useless--

Job 4:11  No teeth, no prey--and the cubs wander off to fend for themselves.

Job 4:12  "A word came to me in secret-- a mere whisper of a word, but I heard it clearly.

Job 4:13  It came in a scary dream one night, after I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep.

Job 4:14  Dread stared me in the face, and Terror. I was scared to death--I shook from head to foot.

Job 4:15  A spirit glided right in front of me-- the hair on my head stood on end.

Job 4:16  I couldn't tell what it was that appeared there-- a blur . . . and then I heard a muffled voice:

Job 4:17  "'How can mere mortals be more righteous than God? How can humans be purer than their Creator?

Job 4:18  Why, God doesn't even trust his own servants, doesn't even cheer his angels,

Job 4:19  So how much less these bodies composed of mud, fragile as moths?

Job 4:20  These bodies of ours are here today and gone tomorrow, and no one even notices--gone without a trace.

Job 4:21  When the tent stakes are ripped up, the tent collapses-- we die and are never the wiser for having lived.'

[PDA Disciple] [index] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [Today's Hymn] [Pocket Internet]