Job22

¹ Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

² “Can a person do anything to help God? Can even a wise person be helpful to him?

³ Is it any advantage to the Almighty if you are righteous? Would it be any gain to him if you were perfect?

⁴ Is it because you’re so pious that he accuses you and brings judgment against you?

⁵ No, it’s because of your wickedness! There’s no limit to your sins.

⁶ “For example, you must have lent money to your friend and demanded clothing as security. Yes, you stripped him to the bone.

⁷ You must have refused water for the thirsty and food for the hungry.

⁸ You probably think the land belongs to the powerful and only the privileged have a right to it!

⁹ You must have sent widows away empty-handed and crushed the hopes of orphans.

¹⁰ That is why you are surrounded by traps and tremble from sudden fears.

¹¹ That is why you cannot see in the darkness, and waves of water cover you.

¹² “God is so great—higher than the heavens, higher than the farthest stars.

¹³ But you reply, ‘That’s why God can’t see what I am doing! How can he judge through the thick darkness?

¹⁴ For thick clouds swirl about him, and he cannot see us. He is way up there, walking on the vault of heaven.’

¹⁵ “Will you continue on the old paths where evil people have walked?

¹⁶ They were snatched away in the prime of life, the foundations of their lives washed away.

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

¹⁸ Yet he was the one who filled their homes with good things, so I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.

¹⁹ “The righteous will be happy to see the wicked destroyed, and the innocent will laugh in contempt.

²⁰ They will say, ‘See how our enemies have been destroyed. The last of them have been consumed in the fire.’

²¹ “Submit to God, and you will have peace; then things will go well for you.

²² Listen to his instructions, and store them in your heart.

²³ If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored— so clean up your life.

²⁴ If you give up your lust for money and throw your precious gold into the river,

²⁵ the Almighty himself will be your treasure. He will be your precious silver!

²⁶ “Then you will take delight in the Almighty and look up to God.

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

²⁸ You will succeed in whatever you choose to do, and light will shine on the road ahead of you.

²⁹ If people are in trouble and you say, ‘Help them,’ God will save them.

³⁰ Even sinners will be rescued; they will be rescued because your hands are pure.”