Job 22

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 judgement?

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 honourable 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 amongst 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.”