Bible Stories: Job (Chapter Iv) Poem by Dr John Celes

Spoke Eliphaz, the Termanite:
Will you mind, if we speak to you?
Can anyone not talk to you?

You had advised many people;
You had strengthened their feeble hands;
Your words had helped those who falter.

When in problems, you’re impatient;
When troubles seek you, you’re annoyed;
Is not your piety, your faith?
Is not your steadfastness, your hope?

Do innocents truly perish?
Are upright, really destroyed?
The trouble-sower reaps the same;
The breath of God makes them perish;
The wrath of God consumes them all!

Although the mighty lion roars,
Teeth of young lions get broken!
For want of prey, old lions die;
The cubs get scattered from mother.

I heard a word whispered in ear:
I saw visions while men had slept;
Fear engulfed me, deep in my bones;
A spirit passed as hairs stood up.

Before my eyes, a figure asked,
“Can man be more righteous than God? ”
“Can mortals be like God, blameless? ”

When God can’t trust his own servants,
And can find fault with angels too,
How easily can He, with men
Of clay, living in clay-houses,
Which get crushed worse than any moth!

Morning or evening, men perish;
Pegs of their tents are plucked with ease;
They die without gaining wisdom!
Man is a naught versus God great!

Copyright by Dr John Celes 4-27-2007