HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 824
JOB 4
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They’re filled with joy when they finally die,
and rejoice when they find the grave.
Why is life given to those with no future,
those God has surrounded with
difficulties?
I cannot eat for sighing;
my groans pour out like water.
What I always feared has happened to me.
What I dreaded has come true.
I have no peace, no quietness.
I have no rest; only trouble comes.”
Eliphaz’s First Response to Job
Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied to Job:
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“Will you be patient and let me say a
word?
For who could keep from speaking out?
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The fierce lion will starve for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness will be
scattered.
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“This truth was given to me in secret,
as though whispered in my ear.
It came to me in a disturbing vision at night,
when people are in a deep sleep.
Fear gripped me,
and my bones trembled.
A spirit* swept past my face,
and my hair stood on end.*
The spirit stopped, but I couldn’t see its
shape.
There was a form before my eyes.
In the silence I heard a voice say,
‘Can a mortal be innocent before God?
Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’
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“In the past you have encouraged many
people;
you have strengthened those who
were weak.
Your words have supported those who
were falling;
you encouraged those with shaky knees.
But now when trouble strikes, you lose heart.
You are terrified when it touches you.
Doesn’t your reverence for God give you
confidence?
Doesn’t your life of integrity give
you hope?
“Stop and think! Do the innocent die?
When have the upright been destroyed?
My experience shows that those who plant
trouble
and cultivate evil will harvest the same.
A breath from God destroys them.
They vanish in a blast of his anger.
The lion roars and the wildcat snarls,
but the teeth of strong lions will be broken.
• Protection
JO B 5 :1 2
When does God intervene, and when
doesn’t he? We don’t know. An evil person develops an evil plan. God frustrates
it—but we might never know about it.
Something bad is about to happen to
someone. God prevents it. How will we
ever know? How many near misses have
we had on the highway without knowing
about them? These things are best left
in God’s hands. We do know that he can
and does frustrate evil plans. Sometimes
he also frustrates our plans because they
are harmful, even if there is no evil intent
behind them.
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“If God does not trust his own angels
and has charged his messengers with
foolishness,
how much less will he trust people made
of clay!
They are made of dust, crushed as easily
as a moth.
They are alive in the morning but dead by
evening,
gone forever without a trace.
Their tent-cords are pulled and the tent
collapses,
and they die in ignorance.
Eliphaz’s Response Continues
1 “Cry for help, but will anyone
answer you?
Which of the angels* will help you?
2 Surely resentment destroys the fool,
and jealousy kills the simple.
3 I have seen that fools may be successful
for the moment,
but then comes sudden disaster.
4 Their children are abandoned far from help;
they are crushed in court with no one to
defend them.
5 The hungry devour their harvest,
even when it is guarded by brambles.*
The thirsty pant after their wealth.*
6 But evil does not spring from the soil,
and trouble does not sprout from
the earth.
7 People are born for trouble
as readily as sparks fly up from a fire.
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“If I were you, I would go to God
and present my case to him.
He does great things too marvelous to
understand.
He performs countless miracles.
4:15a Or wind; also in 4:16. 4:15b Or its wind sent shivers up
my spine. 5:1 Hebrew the holy ones. 5:5a The meaning of
the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain. 5:5b As in Greek and
Syriac versions; Hebrew reads A snare snatches their wealth.