Job 4

₂‘Job, please be patient

and listen to me.

I have to tell you something.

I can not keep quiet.

₃Listen to me, you have taught

a lot of people how to live,

and you have encouraged them

and made them strong again.

₄Some people were falling down,

but you helped them stand up again,

and you made them strong so they could stay alive.

₅But now trouble has come to you,

and you are discouraged.

Bad things are happening to you

and you are afraid.

₆You have always served God.

You are a good man,

and you have always lived in the right way.

That is why you must not give up hope and you must know

that it will get better again.

₇Think about this: Has anyone who was innocent

died while he was young? No.

Has there been an honest man

who has disappeared? No.

₈I have seen trouble coming to people

who were doing bad things,

and I have seen people suffer

who wanted other people to suffer.

₉God becomes angry with them,

and He wipes them off the earth.

₁₀Lions can roar and groan,

but if a lion loses his teeth,

₁₁he can not catch animals

and he will die from hunger.

His children will walk all over the town.

₁₂Someone spoke softly to me.

I could not hear everything that he said.

₁₃It happened while I was dreaming,

when everyone was sleeping.

₁₄I was afraid, and my body

trembled with fear.

₁₅It felt as if a spirit had come over me,

like a wind. The hair on my body stood upright.

₁₆Someone was standing in front of me.

I could not see who he was,

but I heard him say:

₁₇“Will God say there is

someone who is righteous?

Can anyone be innocent

before God who has made him?

₁₈No, God knows that

even his servants in heaven

do not always do what they should do.

He knows that even his messengers_from_heaven

make mistakes.

₁₉The people that He has made of dust,

who live in homes made of clay,

make even more mistakes.

Someone can trample them like a moth.

₂₀People die every day.

They disappear forever,

and no one realises it.

₂₁They die and they are gone

and they did not become wise.” ’