【Job】Chapter 22 << Last Chapter Next Chapter >>

22:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

22:2 Can a man be profitable to God? Though to himself a wise man be profitable!

22:3 Is it of advantage to the Almighty if you are just? Or is it a gain to him if you make your ways perfect?

22:4 Is it because of your piety that he reproves you ? that he enters with you into judgment?

22:5 Is not your wickedness manifold? Are not your iniquities endless?

22:6 You have unjustly kept your kinsmen’s goods in pawn, left them stripped naked of their clothing.

22:7 To the thirsty you have given no water to drink, and from the hungry you have withheld bread;

22:8 As if the land belonged to the man of might, and only the privileged were to dwell in it.

22:9 You have sent widows away empty-handed, and the resources of orphans you have destroyed.

22:10 Therefore snares are round about you, and a sudden terror causes you dismay,

22:11 Or darkness, in which you cannot see; a deluge of waters covers you.

22:12 Does not God, in the heights of the heavens, behold the stars, high though they are?

22:13 Yet you say, "What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?

22:14 Clouds hide him so that he cannot see; he walks upon the vault of the heavens!"

22:15 Do you indeed keep to the ancient way trodden by worthless men,

22:16 Who were snatched away before their time; whose foundations a flood swept away?

22:17 These men said to God, "Depart from us!" and, "What can the Almighty do to us?"

22:18 (Yet he had filled their houses with good things! But far be from me the mind of the impious!)

22:19 The just look on and are gladdened, and the innocent deride them:

22:20 "Truly these have been destroyed where they stood, and such as were left, fire has consumed!"

22:21 Come to terms with him to be at peace. In this shall good come to you:

22:22 Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.

22:23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored; if you put iniquity far from your tent,

22:24 And treat raw gold like dust, and the fine gold of Ophir as pebbles from the brook,

22:25 Then the Almighty himself shall be your gold and your sparkling silver.

22:26 For then you shall delight in the Almighty and you shall lift up your face toward God.

22:27 You shall entreat him and he will hear you, and your vows you shall fulfill.

22:28 When you make a decision, it shall succeed for you, and upon your ways the light shall shine.

22:29 For he brings down the pride of the haughty, but the man of humble mien he saves.

22:30 God delivers him who is innocent; you shall be delivered through cleanness of hands.

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