Job 22

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,⋮

2 “Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.⋮

3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him that you make your ways perfect?⋮

4 Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment?⋮

5 Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.⋮

6 For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.⋮

7 You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.⋮

8 But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it.⋮

9 You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.⋮

10 Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,⋮

11 or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.⋮

12 “Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!⋮

13 You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?⋮

14 Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see. He walks on the vault of the sky.’⋮

15 Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden,⋮

16 who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,⋮

17 who said to God, ‘Depart from us!’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’⋮

18 Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.⋮

19 The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them,⋮

20 saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed their remnant.’⋮

21 “Acquaint yourself with him now, and be at peace. By it, good will come to you.⋮

22 Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.⋮

23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.⋮

24 Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.⋮

25 The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you.⋮

26 For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and will lift up your face to God.⋮

27 You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You will pay your vows.⋮

28 You will also decree a thing, and it will be established to you. Light will shine on your ways.⋮

29 When they cast down, you will say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person.⋮

30 He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”⋮