Moff JOB Chapter 4

2 

“Would you resent it, if we dare to speak?--

though who can keep from speaking?

3 

You have yourself set many 3 right,

and put strength into feeble souls;

4 

your words have kept men on their feet,

the weak-kneed you have nerved.

5 

But now that your own turn has come, you droop;

it touches you close, and you collapse.

6 

Let your religion reassure you;

your blameless life, let that encourage you!

7 

Think now, what guiltless man has ever perished?

When have the just ever been swept away?

8 

Men, as I see it, reap the evil that they plough,

the trouble that they sow;

9 

under God’s blast they perish,

at the breath of his anger they vanish--

10 

roaring lions, hoarse with fury,

they have their fierce fangs shattered,

11 lions perishing for lack of prey,

cubs of a lioness, they are scattered!

12 

Once a word came stealing to me,

the whisper of it reached my ear.

13 

When men fall into trances in the night,

rapt I lay in my visions,

14 

terror and trembling seized me,

till my limbs all shuddered;

15 a spirit glided before me,

till my hair was bristling--

16 

there it stood!

I could not make it out,

this form before mine eyes,

but in the hush I heard it murmuring:

17 

‘Before God can a mortal man be just?

Can man be pure before his Maker?’

18 

Even on his heavenly servants he cannot rely,

his very angels he convicts of error;

19 

and what of those in houses made of clay,

with dust for their foundations,

frail as a moth,

20 

crushed in a single day,

perishing utterly, unnoticed?

21 

God blows on them, they wither up,

they die, and die in ignorance of him.