Study

22. Eliphaz Replies

    ² “Can a man be of benefit to God?
   Can even a wise person benefit him?
³ What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous?
   What would he gain if your ways were blameless?

    ⁴ “Is it for your piety that he rebukes you
   and brings charges against you?
⁵ Is not your wickedness great?
   Are not your sins endless?
⁶ You demanded security from your relatives for no reason;
   you stripped people of their clothing, leaving them naked.
⁷ You gave no water to the weary
   and you withheld food from the hungry,
⁸ though you were a powerful man, owning land—
   an honored man, living on it.
⁹ And you sent widows away empty-handed
   and broke the strength of the fatherless.
¹⁰ That is why snares are all around you,
   why sudden peril terrifies you,
¹¹ why it is so dark you cannot see,
   and why a flood of water covers you.

    ¹² “Is not God in the heights of heaven?
   And see how lofty are the highest stars!
¹³ Yet you say, ‘What does God know?
   Does he judge through such darkness?
¹⁴ Thick clouds veil him, so he does not see us
   as he goes about in the vaulted heavens.’
¹⁵ Will you keep to the old path
   that the wicked have trod?
¹⁶ They were carried off before their time,
   their foundations washed away by a flood.
¹⁷ They said to God, ‘Leave us alone!
   What can the Almighty do to us?’
¹⁸ Yet it was he who filled their houses with good things,
   so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked.
¹⁹ The righteous see their ruin and rejoice;
   the innocent mock them, saying,
²⁰ ‘Surely our foes are destroyed,
   and fire devours their wealth.’

    ²¹ “Submit to God and be at peace with him;
   in this way prosperity will come to you.
²² Accept instruction from his mouth
   and lay up his words in your heart.
²³ If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored:
   If you remove wickedness far from your tent
²⁴ and assign your nuggets to the dust,
   your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines,
²⁵ then the Almighty will be your gold,
   the choicest silver for you.
²⁶ Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty
   and will lift up your face to God.
²⁷ You will pray to him, and he will hear you,
   and you will fulfill your vows.
²⁸ What you decide on will be done,
   and light will shine on your ways.
²⁹ When people are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’
   then he will save the downcast.
³⁰ He will deliver even one who is not innocent,
   who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”