Job 22

Eliphaz

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²“Can a man be of benefit to God?

Can even a wise person benefit him?

³What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous?

What would he gain if your ways were blameless?

⁴“Is it for your piety that he rebukes you

and brings charges against you?

⁵Is not your wickedness great?

Are not your sins endless?

⁶You demanded security from your relatives for no reason;

you stripped people of their clothing, leaving them naked.

⁷You gave no water to the weary

and you withheld food from the hungry,

⁸though you were a powerful man, owning land—

an honored man, living on it.

⁹And you sent widows away empty-handed

and broke the strength of the fatherless.

¹⁰That is why snares are all around you,

why sudden peril terrifies you,

¹¹why it is so dark you cannot see,

and why a flood of water covers you.

¹²“Is not God in the heights of heaven?

And see how lofty are the highest stars!

¹³Yet you say, ‘What does God know?

Does he judge through such darkness?

¹⁴Thick clouds veil him, so he does not see us

as he goes about in the vaulted heavens.’

¹⁵Will you keep to the old path

that the wicked have trod?

¹⁶They were carried off before their time,

their foundations washed away by a flood.

¹⁷They said to God, ‘Leave us alone!

What can the Almighty do to us?’

¹⁸Yet it was he who filled their houses with good things,

so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked.

¹⁹The righteous see their ruin and rejoice;

the innocent mock them, saying,

²⁰‘Surely our foes are destroyed,

and fire devours their wealth.’

²¹“Submit to God and be at peace with him;

in this way prosperity will come to you.

²²Accept instruction from his mouth

and lay up his words in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored:

If you remove wickedness far from your tent

²⁴and assign your nuggets to the dust,

your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines,

²⁵then the Almighty will be your gold,

the choicest silver for you.

²⁶Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty

and will lift up your face to God.

²⁷You will pray to him, and he will hear you,

and you will fulfill your vows.

²⁸What you decide on will be done,

and light will shine on your ways.

²⁹When people are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’

then he will save the downcast.

³⁰He will deliver even one who is not innocent,

who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”