Job 22:1-30
22 And Eliphaz the Temanite answered
2 “Is a man to be serviceable to God?why, it is to himself that a capable man is serviceable.
3 Does Shaddai have any concern that you should do right,or any profit when you follow a conscientious course?
4 Would it be for your piety that he would reprove youand arraign you for judgment?
5 Is it not that your wickedness is greatand your guilt infinite,
6 Because you demand pawns of your brothers without reasonand strip off naked men’s garments,
7 Do not give a drink of water to a fainting manand refuse bread to a hungry man,
8 But a strong-handed man has the country for his own,and an influential man is to live in it;
9 You turn widows away empty-handedand batter orphans’ arms?
10 That is why there are traps around youand dread throws you into sudden consternation,
11 Light has turned dark for you, you cannot see,and spray of water covers you.
12 Of course, God stands high in the heavensand sees the heads of the stars, lofty though they be,
13 And you think ‘What does God know?will he judge through thick air?
14 Clouds are a screen to him and he will not see;and he will be walking the vault of the heavens.’
15 * Will you keep to the foul-players’ path,the one villains have trodden,
16 Who were seized untimely,a river pouring upon their foundation,
17 Those who said to Deity ‘Get out of our way’and ‘What should Shaddai do to us?’
18 When it was he that had filled their houses with good things;wrong-doers’ principles are far from him.
19 Honest men see and are glad,and an innocent man derides them:
20 * ‘They are positively annihilated, every mother’s son,and fire has consumed the last remnant of them.’
21 Get used to him and on good terms with him;by that what comes to you will be good.
22 Take an instruction from his mouthand lodge his say in your heart.
23 If you go back to Shaddai, humbling yourself,put foul play far off from your tent,
24 Lay ore in dustand Ophir gold among arroyo rocks,
25 * Then Shaddai will be your nuggetsand peak-silver to you.
26 For then you will be happy over Shaddaiand raise your face to God,
27 You will invoke him and he will hear youand you will be paying your vows,
28 And you will decide on a thing and have it hold good for you,and light will be beaming over your paths.
29 * For he brings low the lofty and proud man,and the man of downcast eyes he saves.
30 * He will bring to safety one who is not innocent,and he shall be brought to safety by the cleanness of your hands.”
Footnotes
^ 22:15 Codd.* the olden path
^ 22:20 Lit. annihilated, the beings of them, and Var. annihilated, those who stood up against us, and
^ 22:25 Unc., susp.
^ 22:29 Codd. When they go low, you say ‘Pride!’
^ 22:30 Susp.
