22:2 "Can a human be of any use to God when even a wise person is only useful to himself?
22:3 Is the Almighty pleased when you are righteous? Does he gain anything when you follow the path of integrity?
22:4 Does God correct you and bring you into a court of law because you fear him?
22:5 "Aren't you really very wicked? Is there no end to your wrongdoing?
22:6 For no reason you take your brothers' goods as security for a loan and strip them of their clothes.
22:7 You don't even give a tired person a drink of water, and you take food away from hungry people.
22:8 A strong person owns the land. A privileged person lives in it.
22:9 You send widows away empty-handed, and the arms of orphans are broken.
22:10 That is why traps are all around you and great fear suddenly grips you.
22:11 [That is why] darkness surrounds you and you cannot see and a flood of water covers you.
22:12 "Isn't God high above in the heavens? Look how high the highest stars are!
22:13 You ask, 'What does God know? Can he judge [anything] from behind a dark cloud?
22:14 Thick clouds surround him so that he cannot see. He walks above the clouds.'
22:15 "Are you following the old path that wicked people have taken?
22:16 They are snatched up before their time. A river washes their foundation away.
22:17 They told God, 'Leave us alone! What can the Almighty do for us?'
22:18 Yet, he filled their homes with good things. (The plan of the wicked is foreign to my way of thinking.)
22:19 The righteous saw it and were glad, and the innocent made fun of them by saying,
22:20 'Indeed, their wealth has been wiped out, and a fire has burned up what [little] they had left.'
22:21 "Be in harmony and at peace with God. In this way you will have prosperity.
22:22 Accept instruction from his mouth, and keep his words in your heart.
22:23 If you return to the Almighty, you will prosper. If you put wrongdoing out of your tent,
22:24 and lay your gold down in the dust, and put your gold from Ophir among the pebbles in the rivers,
22:25 then the Almighty will become your gold and your large supply of silver.
22:26 Then you will be happy with the Almighty and look up toward God.
22:27 You will pray to him, and he will listen to you, and you will keep your vow to him.
22:28 When you promise to do something, you will succeed, and light will shine on your path.
22:29 When others are discouraged, you will say, 'Cheer up!' Then he will save the humble person.
22:30 He will rescue one who is not innocent. That person will be rescued by your purity."
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