Job 22

Chapter 22

Eliphaz’s Third Response to Job

Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²“Can a person do anything to help God?

Can even a wise person be helpful to him?

³Is it any advantage to the Almighty if you are righteous?

Would it be any gain to him if you were perfect?

⁴Is it because you’re so pious that he accuses you

and brings judgment against you?

⁵No, it’s because of your wickedness!

There’s no limit to your sins.

⁶“For example, you must have lent money to your friend

and demanded clothing as security.

Yes, you stripped him to the bone.

⁷You must have refused water for the thirsty

and food for the hungry.

⁸You probably think the land belongs to the powerful

and only the privileged have a right to it!

⁹You must have sent widows away empty-handed

and crushed the hopes of orphans.

¹⁰That is why you are surrounded by traps

and tremble from sudden fears.

¹¹That is why you cannot see in the darkness,

and waves of water cover you.

¹²“God is so great—higher than the heavens,

higher than the farthest stars.

¹³But you reply, ‘That’s why God can’t see what I am doing!

How can he judge through the thick darkness?

¹⁴For thick clouds swirl about him, and he cannot see us.

He is way up there, walking on the vault of heaven.’

¹⁵“Will you continue on the old paths

where evil people have walked?

¹⁶They were snatched away in the prime of life,

the foundations of their lives washed away.

¹⁷For they said to God, ‘Leave us alone!

What can the Almighty do to us?’

¹⁸Yet he was the one who filled their homes with good things,

so I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.

¹⁹“The righteous will be happy to see the wicked destroyed,

and the innocent will laugh in contempt.

²⁰They will say, ‘See how our enemies have been destroyed.

The last of them have been consumed in the fire.’

²¹“Submit to God, and you will have peace;

then things will go well for you.

²²Listen to his instructions,

and store them in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored—

so clean up your life.

²⁴If you give up your lust for money

and throw your precious gold into the river,

²⁵the Almighty himself will be your treasure.

He will be your precious silver!

²⁶“Then you will take delight in the Almighty

and look up to God.

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

and you will fulfill your vows to him.

²⁸You will succeed in whatever you choose to do,

and light will shine on the road ahead of you.

²⁹If people are in trouble and you say, ‘Help them,’

God will save them.

³⁰Even sinners will be rescued;

they will be rescued because your hands are pure.”