Job 22
Eliphaz Speaks: Job’s Wickedness Is Great
[1] Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
[2] “Can a man be profitable to God?
Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
[3] Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right,
or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?
[4] Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you
and enters into judgment with you?
[5] Is not your evil abundant?
There is no end to your iniquities.
[6] For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing
and stripped the naked of their clothing.
[7] You have given no water to the weary to drink,
and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
[8] The man with power possessed the land,
and the favored man lived in it.
[9] You have sent widows away empty,
and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.
[10] Therefore snares are all around you,
and sudden terror overwhelms you,
[11] or darkness, so that you cannot see,
and a flood of water covers you.
[12] “Is not God high in the heavens?
See the highest stars, how lofty they are!
[13] But you say, ‘What does God know?
Can he judge through the deep darkness?
[14] Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see,
and he walks on the vault of heaven.’
[15] Will you keep to the old way
that wicked men have trod?
[16] They were snatched away before their time;
their foundation was washed away.
[17] They said to God, ‘Depart from us,’
and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’
[18] Yet he filled their houses with good things—
but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
[19] The righteous see it and are glad;
the innocent one mocks at them,
[20] saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off,
and what they left the fire has consumed.’
[21] “Agree with God, and be at peace;
thereby good will come to you.
[22] Receive instruction from his mouth,
and lay up his words in your heart.
[23] If you return to the Almighty you will be built up;
if you remove injustice far from your tents,
[24] if you lay gold in the dust,
and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent-bed,
[25] then the Almighty will be your gold
and your precious silver.
[26] For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty
and lift up your face to God.
[27] You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you,
and you will pay your vows.
[28] You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,
and light will shine on your ways.
[29] For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’;
but he saves the lowly.
[30] He delivers even the one who is not innocent,
who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.” (ESV)
