Job22

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²“Can a man be of benefit to God? Can even a wise person benefit him?

³What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous? What would he gain if your ways were blameless?

⁴“Is it for your piety that he rebukes you and brings charges against you?

⁵Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless?

⁶You demanded security from your relatives for no reason; you stripped people of their clothing, leaving them naked.

⁷You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry,

⁸though you were a powerful man, owning land— an honored man, living on it.

⁹And you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless.

¹⁰That is why snares are all around you, why sudden peril terrifies you,

¹¹why it is so dark you cannot see, and why a flood of water covers you.

¹²“Is not God in the heights of heaven? And see how lofty are the highest stars!

¹³Yet you say, ‘What does God know? Does he judge through such darkness?

¹⁴Thick clouds veil him, so he does not see us as he goes about in the vaulted heavens.’

¹⁵Will you keep to the old path that the wicked have trod?

¹⁶They were carried off before their time, their foundations washed away by a flood.

¹⁷They said to God, ‘Leave us alone! What can the Almighty do to us?’

¹⁸Yet it was he who filled their houses with good things, so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked.

¹⁹The righteous see their ruin and rejoice; the innocent mock them, saying,

²⁰‘Surely our foes are destroyed, and fire devours their wealth.’

²¹“Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.

²²Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored: If you remove wickedness far from your tent

²⁴and assign your nuggets to the dust, your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines,

²⁵then the Almighty will be your gold, the choicest silver for you.

²⁶Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God.

²⁷You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.

²⁸What you decide on will be done, and light will shine on your ways.

²⁹When people are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’ then he will save the downcast.

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