以利法的责难
1提幔人以利法回答说：
2“若有人向你进言，
你会厌烦吗？
可是，谁能忍住不说呢？
3你曾教导许多人，
使无力的手强壮。
4你的话使人免于跌倒，
你使颤抖的膝硬朗。
5但现在苦难一来，
你便灰心丧胆；
灾祸来临，
你便惊慌失措。
6你敬畏上帝还没有信心吗？
你行为纯全还没有盼望吗？
7你想一想，
哪有无辜的人灭亡？
哪有正直的人遭殃？
8据我所见，
播恶收恶，
种祸得祸。
9他们被上帝的气息所毁，
被上帝的怒气所灭。
10狮子咆哮，猛狮吼叫，
壮狮的牙齿被敲掉。
11雄狮因无食而死，
母狮的幼崽离散。
12“有信息暗暗地传给我，
一声低语传入我耳中。
13夜间人们沉睡的时候，
在搅扰思绪的异象中，
14恐惧袭来，
令我战栗不已，
全身发抖。
15有灵从我脸上拂过，
使我毛骨悚然。
16那灵停住，
我无法辨认其模样。
眼前出现一个形状，
寂静中听见有声音说，
17‘在上帝面前，世人岂算得上公义？
在创造主面前，凡人岂算得上纯洁？
18连上帝的仆人都无法令祂信任，
连祂的天使都被祂找出过错，
19更何况源自尘土、
住在土造的躯壳里、
脆弱如蛾的世人呢？
20早晚之间，他们便被毁灭，
永远消逝，无人察觉。
21他们帐篷的绳索被拔起，
他们毫无智慧地死去。’
Eliphaz
1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2‘If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
But who can keep from speaking?
3Think how you have instructed many,
how you have strengthened feeble hands.
4Your words have supported those who stumbled;
you have strengthened faltering knees.
5But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;
it strikes you, and you are dismayed.
6Should not your piety be your confidence
and your blameless ways your hope?
7‘Consider now: who, being innocent, has ever perished?
Where were the upright ever destroyed?
8As I have observed, those who plough evil
and those who sow trouble reap it.
9At the breath of God they perish;
at the blast of his anger they are no more.
10The lions may roar and growl,
yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.
11The lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12‘A word was secretly brought to me,
my ears caught a whisper of it.
13Amid disquieting dreams in the night,
when deep sleep falls on people,
14fear and trembling seized me
and made all my bones shake.
15A spirit glided past my face,
and the hair on my body stood on end.
16It stopped,
but I could not tell what it was.
A form stood before my eyes,
and I heard a hushed voice:
17“Can a mortal be more righteous than God?
Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?
18If God places no trust in his servants,
if he charges his angels with error,
19how much more those who live in houses of clay,
whose foundations are in the dust,
who are crushed more readily than a moth!
20Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces;
unnoticed, they perish for ever.
21Are not the cords of their tent pulled up,
so that they die without wisdom?”
