JobChapter 22
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1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: 2"Can a man be useful to God?
Can even a wise man help him? 3Does it please the Almighty if you are righteous?
Does he gain anything if your ways are without blame? 4Is it because you honor him that he scolds you?
Is that why he brings you to court? 5Isn't your evil great?
Don't your sins go on without end? 6For no reason you made your brothers give you things to hold for their debts.
You took clothes from people and left them naked. 7You gave no water to tired people.
You kept food from hungry people. 8All the while, the land belonged to a powerful man.
A man with honor lived on it. 9You sent widows away with nothing.
The strength of children with no fathers was crushed. 10That is why traps are all around you.
Sudden danger terrifies you. 11It is so dark you can't see.
A flood of water covers you. 12Isn't God as high as the heavens?
Look at the highest stars. See how high they are! 13Yet you say, 'What does God know?
Can he judge through thick darkness? 14Thick clouds hide him, so he can't see us
as he walks across the dome of the sky.' 15Will you stay on the old path
that wicked men have walked? 16They were snatched away before their time.
A flood washed away their foundations. 17They said to God, 'Go away from us!
What can the Almighty do to us?' 18But he was the one who filled their houses with good things.
So I stay far away from the advice of the wicked. 19Righteous people see it and are glad.
Innocent people make fun of the wicked and say, 20'Surely our enemies are destroyed.
Fire has burned up all their riches.' 21Make things right with God now and be at peace with him.
Then good things will come to you. 22Accept the teaching from his mouth.
Store up his words in your heart. 23If you come back to the Almighty, you will be built up again.
If you put wrongdoing far from your tents, 24and throw your gold down in the dust,
and the gold of Ophir among the rocks in the valleys, 25then the Almighty will be your gold.
He will be your finest silver. 26Surely then you will find joy in the Almighty.
You will lift up your face to God. 27You will pray to him, and he will hear you.
You will keep your promises to him. 28What you decide will be done.
Light will shine on your paths. 29When people are brought low and you say, 'Lift them up!'
then God will save the humble. 30He will rescue even someone who is not innocent.
He will save him because your hands are clean."