Job 22–24

Eliphaz Accuses Job of Wickedness

22Then ^aEliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

²“Can ^ba man be profitable to God,

Though he who is wise may be profitable to himself?

³Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous?

Or is it gain to Him that you make your ways blameless?

⁴“Is it because of your fear of Him that He corrects you,

And enters into judgment with you?

⁵Is not your wickedness great,

And your iniquity without end?

⁶For you have ^ctaken pledges from your brother for no reason,

And stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷You have not given the weary water to drink,

And you ^dhave withheld bread from the hungry.

⁸But the ¹mighty man possessed the land,

And the honorable man dwelt in it.

⁹You have sent widows away empty,

And the ²strength of the fatherless was crushed.

¹⁰Therefore snares are all around you,

And sudden fear troubles you,

¹¹Or darkness so that you cannot see;

And an abundance of ^ewater covers you.

¹²“Is not God in the height of heaven?

And see the highest stars, how lofty they are!

¹³And you say, ^f‘What does God know?

Can He judge through the deep darkness?

^14gThick clouds cover Him, so that He cannot see,

And He walks above the circle of heaven.’

¹⁵Will you keep to the old way

Which wicked men have trod,

¹⁶Who ^hwere cut down before their time,

Whose foundations were swept away by a flood?

¹⁷ⁱThey said to God, ‘Depart from us!

What can the Almighty do to ³them?’

¹⁸Yet He filled their houses with good things;

But the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁹“The ^jrighteous see it and are glad,

And the innocent laugh at them:

²⁰‘Surely our ⁴adversaries are cut down,

And the fire consumes their remnant.’

²¹“Now acquaint yourself with Him, and ^kbe at peace;

Thereby good will come to you.

²²Receive, please, ^linstruction from His mouth,

And ^mlay up His words in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up;

You will remove iniquity far from your tents.

²⁴Then you will ⁿlay your gold in the dust,

And the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.

²⁵Yes, the Almighty will be your ⁵gold

And your precious silver;

²⁶For then you will have your ^odelight in the Almighty,

And lift up your face to God.

^27pYou will make your prayer to Him,

He will hear you,

And you will pay your vows.

²⁸You will also declare a thing,

And it will be established for you;

So light will shine on your ways.

²⁹When they cast you down, and you say, ‘Exaltation will come!’

Then ^qHe will save the humble person.

³⁰He will even deliver one who is not innocent;

Yes, he will be delivered by the purity of your hands.”

Job Proclaims God’s Righteous Judgments

23Then Job answered and said:

²“Even today my ^acomplaint is bitter;

¹My hand is listless because of my groaning.

^3bOh, that I knew where I might find Him,

That I might come to His seat!

⁴I would present my case before Him,

And fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I would know the words which He would answer me,

And understand what He would say to me.

^6cWould He contend with me in His great power?

No! But He would take note of me.

⁷There the upright could reason with Him,

And I would be delivered forever from my Judge.

⁸“Look, ^dI go forward, but He is not there,

And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;

⁹When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him;

When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.

¹⁰But ^eHe knows the way that I take;

When ^fHe has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.

^11gMy foot has held fast to His steps;

I have kept His way and not turned aside.

¹²I have not departed from the ^hcommandment of His lips;

ⁱI have treasured the words of His mouth

More than my ²necessary food.

¹³“But He is unique, and who can make Him change?

And whatever ^jHis soul desires, that He does.

¹⁴For He performs what is ^kappointed for me,

And many such things are with Him.

¹⁵Therefore I am terrified at His presence;

When I consider this, I am afraid of Him.

¹⁶For God ^lmade my heart weak,

And the Almighty terrifies me;

¹⁷Because I was not ^mcut off ³from the presence of darkness,

And He did not hide deep darkness from my face.

Job Complains of Violence on the Earth

24“Since ^atimes are not hidden from the Almighty,

Why do those who know Him see not His ^bdays?

²“Some remove ^clandmarks;

They seize flocks violently and feed on them;

³They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;

They ^dtake the widow’s ox as a pledge.

⁴They push the needy off the road;

All the ^epoor of the land are forced to hide.

⁵Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert,

They go out to their work, searching for food.

The wilderness yields food for them and for their children.

⁶They gather their fodder in the field

And glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

⁷They ^fspend the night naked, without clothing,

And have no covering in the cold.

⁸They are wet with the showers of the mountains,

And ^ghuddle around the rock for want of shelter.

⁹“Some snatch the fatherless from the breast,

And take a pledge from the poor.

¹⁰They cause the poor to go naked, without ^hclothing;

And they take away the sheaves from the hungry.

¹¹They press out oil within their walls,

And tread winepresses, yet suffer thirst.

¹²The dying groan in the city,

And the souls of the wounded cry out;

Yet God does not charge them with wrong.

¹³“There are those who rebel against the light;

They do not know its ways

Nor abide in its paths.

¹⁴ⁱThe murderer rises with the light;

He kills the poor and needy;

And in the night he is like a thief.

^15jThe eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight,

^kSaying, ‘No eye will see me’;

And he ¹disguises his face.

¹⁶In the dark they break into houses

Which they marked for themselves in the daytime;

^lThey do not know the light.

¹⁷For the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death;

If someone recognizes them,

They are in the terrors of the shadow of death.

¹⁸“They should be swift on the face of the waters,

Their portion should be cursed in the earth,

So that no one would turn into the way of their vineyards.

¹⁹As drought and heat ²consume the snow waters,

So ³the grave consumes those who have sinned.

²⁰The womb should forget him,

The worm should feed sweetly on him;

^mHe should be remembered no more,

And wickedness should be broken like a tree.

²¹For he ⁴preys on the barren who do not bear,

And does no good for the widow.

²²“But God draws the mighty away with His power;

He rises up, but no man is sure of life.

²³He gives them security, and they rely on it;

Yet ⁿHis eyes are on their ways.

²⁴They are exalted for a little while,

Then they are gone.

They are brought low;

They are ⁵taken out of the way like all others;

They dry out like the heads of grain.

²⁵“Now if it is not so, who will prove me a liar,

And make my speech worth nothing?”