Eliphaz Speaks: Job’s Wickedness Is Great

22 Then zEliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

2  a“Can a man be profitable to God?

Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

3  Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right,

or is it gain to him if you bmake your ways blameless?

4  Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you

and centers into judgment with you?

5  Is not your evil abundant?

There is no end to your iniquities.

6  For you have dexacted pledges of your brothers for nothing

eand stripped the naked of their clothing.

7  You have given no water to the weary to drink,

and you have fwithheld bread from the hungry.

8  gThe man with power possessed the land,

and hthe favored man lived in it.

9  You have isent widows away empty,

and jthe arms of kthe fatherless were crushed.

10  Therefore lsnares are all around you,

and sudden terror overwhelms you,

11  or mdarkness, so that you cannot see,

and a nflood of owater covers you.

12  “Is not God high in the heavens?

See pthe highest stars, how lofty they are!

13  But you say, q‘What does God know?

Can he judge through rthe deep darkness?

14  sThick 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 snatched away tbefore their time;

their foundation was washed away.1

17  They said to God, u‘Depart from us,’

and v‘What can the Almighty do to us?’2

18  Yet he filled their houses with good things—

but wthe counsel of the wicked is far from me.

19  xThe righteous see it and are glad;

the innocent one ymocks at them,

20  saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off,

and what they left zthe fire has consumed.’

21  a“Agree with God, and bbe at peace;

thereby good will come to you.

22  Receive instruction from chis mouth,

and dlay up his words in your heart.

23  If you ereturn to the Almighty you will be fbuilt up;

if you gremove injustice far from your tents,

24  if you lay gold in hthe dust,

and gold of iOphir among the stones of the torrent-bed,

25  then the Almighty will be your gold

and your precious silver.

26  For then you jwill delight yourself in the Almighty

and klift up your face to God.

27  You will lmake your prayer to him, and he will hear you,

and you will mpay your vows.

28  You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,

and nlight will shine on your ways.

29  For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’;3

but he saves othe lowly.

30  He pdelivers even the one who is not innocent,

who will be delivered through qthe cleanness of your hands.”