Chapter IV.
But Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: If we begin to speak to you, perhaps you will take offense. But who can hold on to a thought? Therefore, words conceived are expressed to the detriment of the listener, and he says the following:
Behold, you have taught many. That is, you have brought back the most through your cleverness and kindness from their mistakes.
And you have strengthened weary hands. You have confirmed the faltering words, and you have supported trembling knees. But now a blow has come upon you, and you have become weak. It has touched you, and you are troubled. Where is your fear, your strength, your patience, and the perfection of your ways? Therefore, these things are said to holy Job with mockery, and they have this meaning: if you had done these things that I have spoken of, you would never have fallen into such great evils as an example to mortals, because we know God, the good and just creator of all things.
Remember, I beseech you: who indeed has ever perished being innocent, or when have the upright been destroyed? Rather, I have seen those who work iniquity, and sow pain, and reap it, being destroyed by the breath of God and consumed by the spirit of his wrath. Therefore, do you not know that Abel was innocently killed in the beginning, and that Abraham the patriarch was endangered because of his wife? And not understanding this, you give a general judgment, that when some of mankind are chastised by the Lord, it is for their correction, while others are tested, of whom this person is: why then do you reproach him as if he were guilty, with the punishment? Rather, those who worked iniquity perished, with God breathing upon them, that is, the judgment of the judge, like a most violent wind, took them away from the hope of eternal life.
The roar of the lion, and the cry of the lioness, and the teeth of the lion cubs were shattered. In the roar of the lioness and in her cry, she wanted to indicate the ferocity of a predator.
The tiger died because it did not have prey, and the lion cubs were scattered. Furthermore, it has been said to me that there is a hidden word. In the tiger, its speed to plunder humans and to capture prey is described, whose cubs, similar to it, were scattered and killed. In another edition, instead of a tiger, it is a myrmecoleon, that is, an ant, and a lion, whom we might more accurately call the devil: when it is in pursuit of prey, it is to be regarded as something holy, like a lion; but when it seeks to take the smallest thing, it is to be called an ant. And just as the ant takes the grains from the granary, so he takes good thoughts from the hearts of people.
And as if my ears secretly received the veins of his whisper. In the horror of a nocturnal vision, when sleep usually overtakes people, fear held me, and trembling, and all my bones were terrified. And when his spirit passed before me, the hair on my flesh stood up. A certain one stood, whose face I did not recognize, an image before my eyes, and I heard a voice like a gentle breeze. Shall a man be justified in comparison with God or shall a man be more pure than his maker? That is, secretly to the ear of my heart, the power of the sentence has penetrated like a certain breath.
Behold, those who serve him are not steadfast, and in his angels he finds wickedness. How much more those who dwell in houses of clay. Indeed, it is said of the devil, who was once a holy angel, that he did not remain in truth and fell from his angelic exaltation by his own will: but nevertheless, this is not continuously general: so that just as in him, so too in all angels, wickedness, which is sin, is found. For every nature, undoubtedly created, is capable of sin; as it appeared in the angel I mentioned: because he did not remain in truth: yet through the gift and grace of their creator, they were so transformed by the love of that charity that they no longer desire to sin, nor can they.
Those who have a terrestrial foundation will be consumed like a moth. If our bodies are made of clay: the foundation of our houses, it must be believed that this life is temporary, and when it is taken away, the clay houses collapse into death.
From morning until evening they are cut down, and because no one understands, they will perish forever. But those who remain will be taken away: they will die, and not in wisdom. In one day, he showed the entire life of human beings, which blossoms in the world. It flowers in the young, strengthens in the youth, and matures in old age: in the elderly, it is consumed like fruit, and finally in decrepit old age, which he called evening. Where is that in the Psalm: Let it pass as the grass in the morning, etc.: It falls in death, it hardens in the corpse.