Job 22

¹ Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

² Can a man be profitable to God?
Surely a wise man profits himself.

³ Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous,
or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?

⁴ Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you
and enters into judgment with you?

⁵ Is not your evil abundant?
And there is no end to your iniquities.

⁶ For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing
and stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷ You have given no water to the weary to drink,
and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

⁸ The man with power possessed the land,
and the privileged man lived in it.

⁹ You have sent widows away empty,
and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.

¹⁰ Therefore snares surround you,
and sudden terror overwhelms you,

¹¹ or darkness, so that you cannot see,
and a flood of water covers you.

¹² Is not God high in the heavens?
See the highest stars — how lofty they are!

¹³ Yet you say, 'What does God know?
Can he judge through the deep darkness?'

¹⁴ Thick clouds veil him so that he does not see,
and he walks on the vault of heaven.

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

¹⁶ They were swept away before their time;
their foundation was washed away.

¹⁷ They said to God, 'Depart from us,'
and 'What can the Almighty do to 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 mock at them,

²⁰ saying, 'Surely our adversaries are cut off,
and what they left, fire has consumed.'

²¹ Agree with God and be at peace;
thereby good will come to you.

²² 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 remove injustice from your tent,

²⁴ if you lay gold in the dust
and gold of Ophir among the rocks of the ravine,

²⁵ then the Almighty will be your gold,
your precious silver.

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

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

²⁸ You will decide on a matter and it will be established for you,
and light will shine on your ways.

²⁹ When they cast down, you will say, 'Rise up!'
For God saves the lowly.

³⁰ He delivers even the man who is not innocent;
he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.