Job 22–24

Eliphaz Speaks: Job’s Wickedness Is Great

²²Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

²“Can a mortal be of use to God?

Can even the wisest be of service to him?^*

³Is it any pleasure to the Almightyⁱ if you are righteous,

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

⁴Is it for your piety that he reproves you

and enters into judgment with you?^*

⁵Is not your wickedness great?

There is no end to your iniquities.^*

⁶For you have exacted pledges from your family for no reason

and stripped the naked of their clothing.^*

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

and you have withheld bread from the hungry.^*

⁸The powerful possess the land,

and the favored live in it.

⁹You have sent widows away empty-handed,

and the arms of the orphans you have crushed.^j*

¹⁰Therefore snares are around you,

and sudden terror overwhelms you,

¹¹or darkness so that you cannot see;

a flood of water covers you.^*

¹²“Is not God high in the heavens?

See the highest stars, how lofty they are!

¹³Therefore you say, ‘What does God know?

Can he judge through the deep darkness?^*

¹⁴Thick clouds enwrap him, so that he does not see,

and he walks on the dome of heaven.’

¹⁵Will you keep to the old way

that the wicked have trod?

¹⁶They were snatched away before their time;

their foundation was washed away by a flood.^*

¹⁷They said to God, ‘Leave us alone,’

and ‘What can the Almighty^k do to us?’^l

¹⁸Yet he filled their houses with good things—

but the plans of the wicked are repugnant to me.^*

¹⁹The righteous see it and are glad;

the innocent laugh them to scorn,^*

²⁰saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off,

and what they left, the fire has consumed.’^*

²¹“Agree with God,^m and be at peace;

in this way good will come to you.^*

²²Receive instruction from his mouth,

and lay up his words in your heart.^*

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

if you remove unrighteousness from your tents,^*

²⁴if you treat gold like dust

and gold of Ophir like the stones of the torrent bed,^*

²⁵and if the Almighty^o is your gold

and your precious silver,^*

²⁶then you will delight yourself in the Almighty^p

and lift up your face to God.^*

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

and you will pay your vows.^*

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

and light will shine on your ways.^*

²⁹When others are humiliated, you say it is pride,

for he saves the humble.^*

³⁰He will deliver even those who are guilty;

they will escape because of the cleanness of your hands.”^q*

Job Replies: My Complaint Is Bitter

²³Then Job answered:

²“Today also my complaint is bitter;^r

his^s hand is heavy despite my groaning.^*

³Oh, that I knew where I might find him,

that I might come even to his dwelling!^*

⁴I would lay my case before him

and fill my mouth with arguments.^*

⁵I would learn what he would answer me

and understand what he would say to me.

⁶Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?

No, but he would give heed to me.

⁷There the upright could reason with him,

and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.^*

⁸“If I go forward, he is not there;

or backward, I cannot perceive him;^*

⁹on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him;

I turn^t to the right, but I cannot see him.

¹⁰But he knows the way that I take;

when he has tested me, I shall come out like gold.^*

¹¹My foot has held fast to his steps;

I have kept his way and have not turned aside.^*

¹²I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;

I have treasured his words in my bosom.^u*

¹³But he stands alone, and who can dissuade him?

What he desires, that he does.^*

¹⁴For he will complete what he appoints for me,

and many such things are in his mind.^*

¹⁵Therefore I am terrified at his presence;

when I consider, I am in dread of him.

¹⁶God has made my heart faint;

the Almighty^v has terrified me.^*

¹⁷If only I could vanish in darkness,

and thick darkness would cover my face!^w*

Job Complains of Violence on the Earth

²⁴“Why are times not kept by the Almighty,^x

and why do those who know him never see his days?^*

²The wicked^y remove landmarks;

they seize flocks and pasture them.^*

³They drive away the donkey of the orphan;

they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.^*

⁴They thrust the needy off the road;

the poor of the earth all hide themselves.^*

⁵Like wild asses in the desert

they go out to their toil,

scavenging in the wasteland

food for their young.^*

⁶They reap in a field not their own,

and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

⁷They lie all night naked, without clothing,

and have no covering in the cold.^*

⁸They are wet with the rain of the mountains

and cling to the rock for want of shelter.^*

⁹“There are those who snatch the orphan child from the breast

and take as a pledge the infant of the poor.^*

¹⁰They go about naked, without clothing;

though hungry, they carry the sheaves;

¹¹between their terraces^z they press out oil;

they tread the winepresses but suffer thirst.

¹²From the city the dying groan,

and the throat of the wounded cries for help;

yet God pays no attention to their prayer.^*

¹³“There are those who rebel against the light,

who are not acquainted with its ways

and do not stay in its paths.^*

¹⁴The murderer rises at dusk

to kill the poor and needy

and in the night is like a thief.^*

¹⁵The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight,

saying, ‘No eye will see me,’

and he disguises his face.^*

¹⁶In the dark they dig through houses;

by day they shut themselves up;

they do not know the light.^*

¹⁷For deep darkness is morning to all of them;

for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.^*

¹⁸“Swift are they on the face of the waters;

their portion in the land is cursed;

no treader turns toward their vineyards.^*

¹⁹Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters;

so does Sheol those who have sinned.^*

²⁰The womb forgets them;

the worm finds them sweet;

they are no longer remembered,

so wickedness is broken like a tree.^*

²¹“They harm^a the childless woman

and do no good to the widow.^*

²²Yet God^b prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;

they rise up when they despair of life.^*

²³He gives them security, and they are supported;

his eyes are upon their ways.^*

²⁴They are exalted a little while and then are gone;

they wither and fade like the mallow;^c

they are cut off like the heads of grain.^*

²⁵If it is not so, who will prove me a liar

and show that there is nothing in what I say?”