JOIN THE JOURNEY JR.

Job 4

Eliphaz’s First Response to Job

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied to Job:

2“Will you be patient and let me say a word?

For who could keep from speaking out?

3“In the past you have encouraged many people;

you have strengthened those who were weak.

4Your words have supported those who were falling;

you encouraged those with shaky knees.

5But now when trouble strikes, you lose heart.

You are terrified when it touches you.

6Doesn’t your reverence for God give you confidence?

Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope?

8“If I were you, I would go to God

and present my case to him.

9He does great things too marvelous to understand.

He performs countless miracles.

10He gives rain for the earth

and water for the fields.

11He gives prosperity to the poor

and protects those who suffer.

12He frustrates the plans of schemers

so the work of their hands will not succeed.

13He traps the wise in their own cleverness

so their cunning schemes are thwarted.

14They find it is dark in the daytime,

and they grope at noon as if it were night.

15He rescues the poor from the cutting words of the strong,

and rescues them from the clutches of the powerful.

16And so at last the poor have hope,

and the snapping jaws of the wicked are shut.

17“But consider the joy of those corrected by God!

Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty when you sin.