Home Master Index
←Prev   Job 22 as rendered by/in  Next→ 


22:1  Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
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 if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?
22:4  Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgement with you?
22:5  Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities.
22:6  For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing.
22:7  You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
22:8  The man with power possessed the land, and the favoured man lived in it.
22:9  You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.
22:10  Therefore snares are all round you, and sudden terror overwhelms you,
22:11  or darkness, so that you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.
22:12  “Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are!
22:13  But you say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness?
22:14  Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see, and he walks on the vault of heaven.’
22:15  Will you keep to the old way that wicked men have trod?
22:16  They were snatched away before their time; their foundation was washed away.
22:17  They said to God, ‘Depart from us’, and ‘What can the Almighty do to 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 one mocks at them,
22:20  saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off, and what they left the fire has consumed.’
22:21  “Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will 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 built up; if you remove injustice far from your tents,
22:24  if you lay gold in the dust, and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent bed,
22:25  then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver.
22:26  For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.
22:27  You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you, and you will pay your vows.
22:28  You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways.
22:29  For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’; but he saves the lowly.
22:30  He delivers even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”