Job 22–24

Eliphaz Answers

22Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

²“Can anyone be of real use to God?

Can even a wise person do him good?

³Does it help the Almighty for you to be good?

Does he gain anything if you are innocent?

⁴Does God punish you for respecting him?

Does he bring you into court for this?

⁵No! It is because your evil is without limits

and your sins have no end.

⁶You took your brothers’ things for a debt they didn’t owe;

you took clothes from people and left them naked.

⁷You did not give water to tired people,

and you kept food from the hungry.

⁸You were a powerful man who owned land;

you were honored and lived in the land.

⁹But you sent widows away empty-handed,

and you mistreated orphans.

¹⁰That is why traps are all around you

and sudden danger frightens you.

¹¹That is why it is so dark you cannot see

and a flood of water covers you.

¹²“God is in the highest part of heaven.

See how high the highest stars are!

¹³But you ask, ‘What does God know?

Can he judge us through the dark clouds?

¹⁴Thick clouds cover him so he cannot see us

as he walks around high up in the sky.’

¹⁵Are you going to stay on the old path

where evil people walk?

¹⁶They were carried away before their time was up,

and their foundations were washed away by a flood.

¹⁷They said to God, ‘Leave us alone!

The Almighty can do nothing to us.’

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

Their way of thinking is different from mine.

¹⁹“Good people can watch and be glad;

the innocent can laugh at them and say,

²⁰‘Surely our enemies are destroyed,

and fire burns up their wealth.’

²¹“Obey God and be at peace with him;

this is the way to happiness.

²²Accept teaching from his mouth,

and keep his words in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be blessed again.

So remove evil from your house.

²⁴Throw your gold nuggets into the dust

and your fine gold among the rocks in the ravines.

²⁵Then the Almighty will be your gold

and the best silver for you.

²⁶You will find pleasure in the Almighty,

and you will look up to him.

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

and you will keep your promises to him.

²⁸Anything you decide will be done,

and light will shine on your ways.

²⁹When people are made humble and you say, ‘Have courage,’

then the humble will be saved.

³⁰Even a guilty person will escape

and be saved because your hands are clean.”

Job Answers

23Then Job answered:

²“My complaint is still bitter today.

I groan because God’s heavy hand is on me.

³I wish I knew where to find God

so I could go to where he lives.

⁴I would present my case before him

and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I would learn how he would answer me

and would think about what he would say.

⁶Would he not argue strongly against me?

No, he would really listen to me.

⁷Then an honest person could present his case to God,

and I would be saved forever by my judge.

⁸“If I go to the east, God is not there;

if I go to the west, I do not see him.

⁹When he is at work in the north, I catch no sight of him;

when he turns to the south, I cannot see him.

¹⁰But God knows the way that I take,

and when he has tested me, I will come out like gold.

¹¹My feet have closely followed his steps;

I have stayed in his way;

I did not turn aside.

¹²I have never left the commands he has spoken;

I have treasured his words more than my own.

¹³“But he is the only God.

Who can come against him?

He does anything he wants.

¹⁴He will do to me what he said he would do,

and he has many plans like this.

¹⁵That is why I am frightened of him;

when I think of this, I am afraid of him.

¹⁶God has made me afraid;

the Almighty terrifies me.

¹⁷But I am not hidden by the darkness,

by the thick darkness that covers my face.

24“I wish the Almighty would set a time for judging.

Those who know God do not see such a day.

²Wicked people take other people’s land;

they steal flocks and take them to new pastures.

³They chase away the orphan’s donkey

and take the widow’s ox when she has no money.

⁴They push needy people off the path;

all the poor of the land hide from them.

⁵The poor become like wild donkeys in the desert

who go about their job of finding food.

The desert gives them food for their children.

⁶They gather hay and straw in the fields

and pick up leftover grapes from the vineyard of the wicked.

⁷They spend the night naked, because they have no clothes,

nothing to cover themselves in the cold.

⁸They are soaked from mountain rains

and stay near the large rocks because they have no shelter.

⁹The fatherless child is grabbed from its mother’s breast;

they take a poor mother’s baby to pay for what she owes.

¹⁰So the poor go around naked without any clothes;

they carry bundles of grain but still go hungry;

¹¹they crush olives to get oil

and grapes to get wine, but they still go thirsty.

¹²Dying people groan in the city,

and the injured cry out for help,

but God accuses no one of doing wrong.

¹³“Those who fight against the light

do not know God’s ways

or stay in his paths.

¹⁴When the day is over, the murderers get up

to kill the poor and needy.

At night they go about like thieves.

¹⁵Those who are guilty of adultery watch for the night,

thinking, ‘No one will see us,’

and they keep their faces covered.

¹⁶In the dark, evil people break into houses.

In the daytime they shut themselves up in their own houses,

because they want nothing to do with the light.

¹⁷Darkness is like morning to all these evil people

who make friends with the terrors of darkness.

¹⁸“They are like foam floating on the water.

Their part of the land is cursed;

no one uses the road that goes by their vineyards.

¹⁹As heat and dryness quickly melt the snow,

so the grave quickly takes away the sinners.

²⁰Their mothers forget them,

and worms will eat their bodies.

They will not be remembered,

so wickedness is broken in pieces like a stick.

²¹These evil people abuse women who cannot have children

and show no kindness to widows.

²²But God drags away the strong by his power.

Even though they seem strong, they do not know how long they will live.

²³God may let these evil people feel safe,

but he is watching their ways.

²⁴For a little while they are important, and then they die;

they are laid low and buried like everyone else;

they are cut off like the heads of grain.

²⁵If this is not true, who can prove I am wrong?

Who can show that my words are worth nothing?”