The Holy Bible – Knox Translation
The Book of Job
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Chapter 4
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Thereupon Eliphaz the Themanite made answer:
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Speak we, it may be thou wilt take our words amiss, yet speech will out.
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Well thou knewest how to teach others, strengthen the drooping hands,
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give courage to the waverer, support to flagging knees, by counsel of thine.
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Now the blow has fallen on thyself, and thy strength is gone; the nearer neighbourhood of misfortune unmans thee.
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No more we hear now of that fear of God, that life perfectly lived, which once gave thee confidence, gave thee strength to endure!
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And, sure enough, ruin never fell yet on the innocent; never yet was an upright soul lost to memory.✻
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The men that traffic in wrong-doing, that sow a crop of mischief they themselves must reap at last, these I have seen undone;
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one breath, one blast of the divine anger withers them quite, and they are gone.
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Roar lion and growl lioness, the fangs of the lion-cubs will yet be shattered.
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For lack of prey, the tiger goes his way at last, the young lions wander wide.✻
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Listen; here is a secret that was made known to me; it was but the breath of a whisper overheard.
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It was the hour when night visions breed disquiet, as men lie chained by sleep;
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fear took hold of me, a fit of trembling that thrilled my whole frame,
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and made every hair bristle. All at once a spirit came beside me and stopped; there it stood,
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no face I knew, yet I could see the form of it, and catch its voice, light as a rustling breeze.
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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?
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Nay, in his own retinue God finds loyalty wanting; angels may err.
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What, then, of Man, earth-bound in his house of clay, eaten away by the moth of time?
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What of Man, cut down between morn and eve, doomed to perish unregarded,
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even the straggler marching on at last?✻ Will he not die before he learns wisdom?
