Job 22–24

THIRD SERIES OF SPEECHES

ELIPHAZ SPEAKS

22Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²Can a man be of any use to God?

Can even a wise man be of use to him?

³Does it delight the Almighty if you are righteous?

Does he profit if you perfect your behavior?^e

⁴Does he correct you and take you to court

because of your piety?^f

⁵Isn’t your wickedness abundant

and aren’t your iniquities endless?

⁶For you took collateral^g from your brothers without cause,

stripping off their clothes and leaving them naked.

⁷You gave no water to the thirsty

and withheld food from the famished,^h

⁸while the land belonged to a powerful man

and an influential man lived on it.

⁹You sent widows away empty-handed,

and the strength of the fatherlessⁱ was^F crushed.

¹⁰Therefore snares surround you,

and sudden dread terrifies^j you,

¹¹or darkness, so you cannot see,

and a flood of water covers you.^k

¹²Isn’t God as high as the heavens?

And look at the highest stars—how lofty they are!

¹³Yet you say, “What does God know?

Can he judge through total darkness?^l

¹⁴Clouds^m veil him so that he cannot see,

as he walks on the circle of the sky.”

¹⁵Will you continue on the ancient path

that wicked men have walked?

¹⁶They were snatched away before their time,

and their foundationsⁿ were washed away by a river.

¹⁷They were the ones who said to God, “Leave us alone!”

and “What can the Almighty do to us?”^Ao

¹⁸But it was he who filled their houses with good things.

The counsel of the wicked is far from me!

¹⁹The righteous see this and rejoice;

the innocent mock them, saying,^p

²⁰“Surely our opponents are destroyed,

and fire has consumed what they left behind.”^q

²¹Come to terms with God and be at peace;^r

in this way^B good will come to you.

²²Receive instruction from his mouth,^s

and place his sayings^t in your heart.

²³If you return^u to the Almighty, you will be renewed.

If you banish injustice from your tent

²⁴and consign your gold to the dust,

the gold of Ophir^a to the stones in the wadis,

²⁵the Almighty will be your gold

and your finest silver.

²⁶Then you will delight^b in the Almighty

and lift up your face to God.^c

²⁷You will pray to him, and he will hear you,^d

and you will fulfill your vows.

²⁸When you make a decision, it will be carried out,^C

and light will shine on your ways.^e

²⁹When others are humiliated and you say, “Lift them up,”

God will save the humble.^Df

³⁰He will even rescue the guilty one,

who will be rescued by the purity of your hands.^g

JOB’S REPLY TO ELIPHAZ

23Then Job answered:

²Today also my complaint is bitter.^Eh

His^F hand is heavy despite my groaning.

³If only I knew how to find him,

so that I could go to his throne.

⁴I would plead my case before himⁱ

and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I would learn how^A he would answer me;

and understand what he would say to me.

⁶Would he prosecute^j me forcefully?

No, he would certainly pay attention to me.

⁷Then an upright man could reason^k with him,

and I would escape from my Judge^Bl forever.

⁸If I go east, he is not there,

and if I go west, I cannot perceive him.^m

⁹When he is at work to the north, I cannot see him;

when he turns south, I cannot find him.

¹⁰Yet he knows the way I have taken;^C

when he has tested me,ⁿ I will emerge as pure gold.

¹¹My feet have followed in his tracks;

I have kept to his way^o and not turned aside.

¹²I have not departed from the commands from his lips;

I have treasured^D the words^p from his mouth

more than my daily food.

¹³But he is unchangeable; who can oppose him?

He does what he desires.^q

¹⁴He will certainly accomplish what he has decreed for me,

and he has many more things like these in mind.^E

¹⁵Therefore I am terrified^r in his presence;

when I consider this, I am afraid of him.

¹⁶God has made my heart faint;^s

the Almighty has terrified me.

¹⁷Yet I am not destroyed^F by the darkness,^t

by the thick darkness that covers my face.

24Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment?^u

Why do those who know him never see his days?

²The wicked displace boundary markers.

They steal a flock and provide pasture for it.

³They drive away the donkeys owned by the fatherless^v

and take the widow’s ox as collateral.

⁴They push the needy off the road;

the poor of the land are forced into hiding.^w

⁵Like wild donkeys in the wilderness,

the poor go out to their task of foraging for food;

the desert provides nourishment for their children.

⁶They gather their fodder in the field

and glean the vineyards of the wicked.

⁷Without clothing, they spend the night naked,

having no covering against the cold.^x

⁸Drenched by mountain rains,

they huddle against^A the rocks, shelterless.

⁹The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast;

the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral.^B

¹⁰Without clothing, they wander about naked.

They carry sheaves but go hungry.^a

¹¹They crush olives in their presses;^C

they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.

¹²From the city, men^D groan;

the mortally wounded cry for help,

yet God pays no attention to this crime.^b

¹³The wicked are those who rebel against the light.

They do not recognize its ways

or stay on its paths.

¹⁴The murderer rises at dawn

to kill the poor and needy,

and by night he becomes a thief.

¹⁵The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight,

thinking, “No eye will see me,”

and he covers his face.

¹⁶In the dark they break^E into houses;

by day they lock themselves in,^F

never experiencing the light.

¹⁷For the morning is like darkness to them.

Surely they are familiar with the terrors of darkness!

¹⁸They float^G on the surface of the water.

Their section of the land is cursed,

so that they never go to their vineyards.

¹⁹As dry ground and heat snatch away the melted snow,

so Sheol^c steals those who have sinned.

²⁰The womb forgets them;

worms feed on them;

they are remembered^d no more.

So injustice is broken like a tree.

²¹They prey on^H the childless woman who is unable to conceive,

and do not deal kindly with the widow.

²²Yet God drags away^I the mighty by his power;

when he rises up, they have no assurance of life.

²³He gives them a sense of security, so they can rely on it,^e

but his eyes^f watch over their ways.

²⁴They are exalted for a moment, then gone;

they are brought low and shrivel up like everything else.^J

They wither like heads of grain.^g

²⁵If this is not true, then who can prove me a liar^h

and show that my speech is worthless?