Job 22 WEB
Summary: Eliphaz speaks a third time, opening with the claim that a man's righteousness or wickedness makes no real difference to God's own well-being, but then directly accuses Job of specific sins, such as taking pledges from his brothers without cause, stripping the naked of clothing, withholding water and bread from the weary and hungry, and sending widows away empty-handed and crushing the arms of orphans. Eliphaz argues this explains Job's calamities, since snares now surround him and darkness has overtaken him, and warns against thinking, as the wicked do, that God is too distant in the clouds to see human affairs. He closes urging Job to submit to God, lay up his words in his heart, and be reconciled, promising that repentance would bring restoration and that Job could then deliver others through his prayers.
1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
2“Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
3Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him that you make your ways perfect?
4Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment?
5Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.
6For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
7You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
8But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it.
9You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
10Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,
11or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.
12“Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!
13You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?
14Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see. He walks on the vault of the sky.’
15Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden,
16who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,
17who said to God, ‘Depart from us;’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’
18Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
19The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them,
20saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed their remnant.’
21“Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace. By it, good will come to you.
22Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.
23If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.
24Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.
25The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you.
26For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and will lift up your face to God.
27You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You will pay your vows.
28You will also decree a thing, and it will be established to you. Light will shine on your ways.
29When they cast down, you will say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person.
30He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”
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