Job 22:1 ←
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
Job 22:2 ←
“Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
Job 22:3 ←
Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him that you make your ways perfect?
Job 22:4 ←
Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment?
Job 22:5 ←
Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.
Job 22:6 ←
For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
Job 22:7 ←
You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
Job 22:8 ←
But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it.
Job 22:9 ←
You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
Job 22:10 ←
Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,
Job 22:11 ←
or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.
Job 22:12 ←
“Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!
Job 22:13 ←
You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?
Job 22:14 ←
Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see. He walks on the vault of the sky.’
Job 22:15 ←
Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden,
Job 22:16 ←
who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,
Job 22:17 ←
who said to God, ‘Depart from us!’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’
Job 22:18 ←
Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
Job 22:19 ←
The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them,
Job 22:20 ←
saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed their remnant.’
Job 22:21 ←
“Acquaint yourself with him now, and be at peace. By it, good will come to you.
Job 22:22 ←
Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.
Job 22:23 ←
If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.
Job 22:24 ←
Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.
Job 22:25 ←
The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you.
Job 22:26 ←
For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and will lift up your face to God.
Job 22:27 ←
You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You will pay your vows.
Job 22:28 ←
You will also decree a thing, and it will be established to you. Light will shine on your ways.
Job 22:29 ←
When they cast down, you will say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person.
Job 22:30 ←
He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”
Public Domain