Job Chapter 22 Back Next{22:1} Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
{22:2} "Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
{22:3} Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect?
{22:4} Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment?
{22:5} Isn't your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.
{22:6} For you have taken pledges from your
brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
{22:7} You haven't given water to the weary to
drink, and you have withheld
bread from the hungry.
{22:8} But as for the mighty man, he had the
earth. The honorable man, he lived in it.
{22:9} You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
{22:10} Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,
{22:11} or
darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.
{22:12} "Isn't God in the heights of
heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!
{22:13} You say, 'What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?
{22:14} Thick
clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn't see. He walks on the vault of the sky.'
{22:15} Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden,
{22:16} who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,
{22:17} who said to God, 'Depart from us;' and, 'What can the Almighty do for us?'
{22:18} Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
{22:19} The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them,
{22:20} saying, 'Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The
fire has consumed their remnant.'
{22:21} "Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace. Thereby good shall come to you.
{22:22} Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your
heart.
{22:23} If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.
{22:24} Lay your treasure in the
dust, the
gold of Ophir among the stones of the
brooks.
{22:25} The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you.
{22:26} For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and shall lift up your face to God.
{22:27} You shall make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You shall pay your vows.
{22:28} You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established to you. Light shall shine on your ways.
{22:29} When they cast down, you shall say, 'be lifted up.' He will save the humble person.
{22:30} He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he shall be delivered through the cleanness of your hands."
Job Chapter 22 Back Next