Job 22 — The Holy Bible

Eliphaz Accuses Job of Vice

Job 22, verse 1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

“Is it not the Lord who teaches understanding and knowledge?

For what concern is it to the Lord

If you were blameless in your works?

Or what profit is it to Him to make plain your ways?

Will He argue with you while you plead your case?

Will He enter into judgment with you?

Is not your vice plentiful,

And are not your sins innumerable?

For you have taken pledges from your brethren for no reason

And taken away the clothing of the naked.

Neither have you given the thirsty water to drink,

But have even withheld a morsel from the hungry.

You have also admired the personality of some

And have transplanted those already settled on earth.

You have sent widows away empty

And have mistreated orphans.

Therefore snares are all around you,

And a serious war has troubled you.

The light has turned to darkness for you,

And water has covered you as you fell asleep.

“Does not He who dwells on high take notice of all?

Does He not humble those who move about with insolence?

But you say, ‘What does the Mighty One know?

Will He judge down into the darkness?

A cloud is His hiding place, so He cannot see

As He travels through the circle of heaven.’

Will you keep to the old path

Which wrongdoers have trod,

Who were seized before their time

And whose foundations were swept away by a flood;

Who said, ‘What will the Lord do to us?’

Or, ‘What will the Almighty bring upon us?’

Yet He filled their houses with good things;

But the counsel of the ungodly is far from Him.

“The righteous have seen it and laughed,

And the innocent mocked them.

Surely their substance has perished,

And fire will consume what is left.

Eliphaz Exhorts Job to Be Strong

“Be strong, therefore. If you endure,

Then your fruit shall be in good things.

Receive utterance from His mouth

And lay up His words in your heart.

If you return and humble yourself before the Lord,

You have caused wrongdoing to be far from your dwelling.

Then you will lay up treasure for yourself

Like a mound on a rock,

And you shall be like the gold of Ophir

On a rock in the brooks.

So the Almighty will be your helper from enemies,

And He will restore you as pure as silver purged by fire.

For then you will speak freely before the Lord,

Looking up cheerfully to heaven.

When you pray to Him, He will hear you,

And He will allow you to pay your vows.

He will restore righteousness to your dwelling,

And there shall be light on your paths.

You will say, ‘He behaved arrogantly, but he humbled himself,

And He will save him who bows down with his eyes.’

He will deliver the innocent,

And you will save yourself in the purity of your hands.”