# Job 22
## Eliphaz: Can a Man Be of Use to God?
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
- 2 “Can a man be of use to God?
- Can even a wise man benefit Him?
- 3 Does it delight the Almighty that you are righteous?
- Does He profit if your ways are blameless?
- 4 Is it for your reverence that He rebukes you
- and enters into judgment against you?
- 5 Is not your wickedness great?
- Are not your iniquities endless?
- 6 For you needlessly demanded security from your brothers
- and deprived [[H6174|the naked]] [[H0899|of their clothing]].
- 7 You gave no water to the weary
- and withheld food from the famished,
- 8 while the land belonged to a mighty man,
- and a man of honor lived on it.
- 9 You sent widows away empty-handed,
- and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.
- 10 Therefore snares surround you,
- and sudden peril terrifies you;
- 11 it is so dark you cannot see,
- and a flood of water covers you.
- 12 Is not God as high as the heavens?
- Look at the highest stars, how lofty they are!
- 13 Yet you say: ‘What does God know?
- Does He judge through thick darkness?
- 14 Thick clouds [[H5643|veil]] Him so He does not see us
- as He traverses the vault of heaven. {Or "heaven’s horizon" or "the circle of the sky" }’
- 15 Will you stay on the ancient path
- that wicked men have trod?
- 16 They were snatched away before their time,
- and their foundations were swept away by a flood.
- 17 They said to God, ‘Depart from us.
- What can the Almighty do to us?’
- 18 But it was He who filled their houses with good things;
- so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.
- 19 The righteous see it and are glad;
- the innocent mock them:
- 20 ‘Surely our foes are destroyed,
- and fire has consumed their excess.’
- 21 Reconcile now and be at peace with Him;
- 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 restored.
- If you remove injustice from your tents
- 24 and consign your gold to the dust
- and the gold of Ophir to the stones of the ravines,
- 25 then the Almighty will be your gold
- and the finest silver for you.
- 26 Surely then you will delight in the Almighty
- and lift up your face to God.
- 27 You will pray to Him, and He will hear you,
- and you will fulfill your vows.
- 28 Your decisions will be carried out,
- and light will shine on your ways.
- 29 When men are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’
- then He will save the lowly.
- 30 He will deliver even one who is not innocent,
- rescuing him through the cleanness of your hands.”
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- Previous chapter: [[Job_21]]
- Next chapter: [[Job_23]]
- TOC: [[TOC_Job]]
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