Longing for Death

20 “Why does God give light to one who is in misery,

and life to those whose soul is bitter,

21  to those who wait for death that does not come,

and search for it

more than for hidden treasures,

22  who rejoice even to jubilation,

and are exultant when they find the grave?

23  Why is light given to a man

whose way is hidden,

and whom God has hedged in?

24  For my sighing comes in place of my food,

and my groanings flow forth like water.

25  For the very thing I dreaded has happened to me,

and what I feared has come upon me.

26  I have no ease, I have no quietness;

I cannot rest; turmoil has come upon me.”

4  Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

2 “If someone should attempt a word with you,

will you be impatient?

But who can refrain from speaking ?

3  Look, you have instructed many;

you have strengthened feeble hands.

4  Your words have supported those

who stumbled,

and you have strengthened the knees

that gave way.

5  But now the same thing comes to you,

and you are discouraged;

it strikes you,

and you are terrified.

6  Is not your piety your confidence,

and your blameless ways your hope?

7  Call to mind now:

Who, being innocent, ever perished?

And where were upright people ever destroyed?

8  Even as I have seen, those who plow iniquity

and those who sow trouble reap the same.

9  By the breath of God they perish,

and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.

10  There is the roaring of the lion

and the growling of the young lion,

but the teeth of the young lions are broken.

11  The mighty lion perishes for lack of prey,

and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.