Job 22 Holman Christian Standard Bible

Third Series of Speeches

Eliphaz Speaks

22 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²Can a man be of any use to God?
Can even a wise man be of use to Him?
³Does it delight the Almighty if you are righteous?
Does He profit if you perfect your behavior?^(A)

⁴Does He correct you and take you to court
because of your piety?^(B)
⁵Isn’t your wickedness abundant
and aren’t your iniquities endless?
⁶For you took collateral^(C) from your brothers without cause,
stripping off their clothes and leaving them naked.
⁷You gave no water to the thirsty
and withheld food from the famished,^(D)
⁸while the land belonged to a powerful man
and an influential man lived on it.
⁹You sent widows away empty-handed,
and the strength of the fatherless^(E) was^[a] crushed.
¹⁰Therefore snares surround you,
and sudden dread terrifies^(F) you,
¹¹or darkness, so you cannot see,
and a flood of water covers you.^(G)

¹²Isn’t God as high as the heavens?
And look at the highest stars—how lofty they are!
¹³Yet you say: “What does God know?
Can He judge through thick darkness?^(H)
¹⁴Clouds^(I) veil Him so that He cannot see,
as He walks on the circle of the sky.”
¹⁵Will you continue on the ancient path
that wicked men have walked?
¹⁶They were snatched away before their time,
and their foundations^(J) were washed away by a river.
¹⁷They were the ones who said to God, “Leave us alone!”
and “What can the Almighty do to us?”^[b]^(K)
¹⁸But it was He who filled their houses with good things.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me!
¹⁹The righteous see this and rejoice;
the innocent mock them, saying,^(L)
²⁰“Surely our opponents are destroyed,
and fire has consumed what they left behind.”^(M)

²¹Come to terms with God and be at peace;^(N)
in this way^[c] good will come to you.
²²Receive instruction from His mouth,^(O)
and place His sayings^(P) in your heart.
²³If you return^(Q) to the Almighty, you will be renewed.
If you banish injustice from your tent
²⁴and consign your gold to the dust,
the gold of Ophir^(R) to the stones in the wadis,
²⁵the Almighty will be your gold
and your finest silver.
²⁶Then you will delight^(S) in the Almighty
and lift up your face to God.^(T)
²⁷You will pray to Him, and He will hear you,^(U)
and you will fulfill your vows.
²⁸When you make a decision, it will be carried out,^[d]
and light will shine on your ways.^(V)
²⁹When others are humiliated and you say, “Lift them up,”
God will save the humble.^[e]^(W)
³⁰He will even rescue the guilty one,
who will be rescued by the purity of your hands.^(X)