Job 22

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

2“Can a man be of use to God? Even a wise man is of use only to himself.

3Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous, or any gain to him if you make your ways blameless?

4Is it because you fear him that he rebukes you and enters into judgment with you?

5Is not your wickedness great? There is no end to your iniquities.

6For you took pledges from your brothers for no reason and stripped the clothing from the naked.

7You gave no water to the weary to drink and withheld bread from the hungry.

8The land belonged to the man with power, and the favored man lived in it.

9You sent widows away empty-handed, and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.

10That is why snares are all around you and sudden terror frightens you,

11or darkness, so that you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.

12Is not God high in the heavens? Look at the highest stars—how lofty they are!

13Yet you say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through thick darkness?

14Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see as he walks on the vault of heaven.’

15Will you keep to the ancient path that wicked men have walked,

16who were snatched away before their time, whose foundations were washed away by a river?

17They said to God, ‘Leave us alone!’ and asked what the Almighty could do to them.

18Yet it was he who filled their houses with good things—but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

19The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent laugh at them:

20‘Surely our foes are destroyed, and fire has consumed what they left.’

21Come to terms with him and be at peace; in this way good will come to you.

22Accept instruction from his mouth, and store up his words in your heart.

23If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up again. If you remove injustice far from your tent,

24if you lay your gold in the dust, your gold of Ophir among the stones of the streambeds,

25then the Almighty will be your gold and your finest silver.

26Then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.

27You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.

28What you decide will be done for you, and light will shine on your ways.

29When people are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’ he will save the downcast.

30He will rescue even one who is not innocent, who will be rescued through the cleanness of your hands.”