# Job 22 [[Job-21|← Job 21]] | [[Job]] | [[Job-23|Job 23 →]] *** ###### v1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, ###### v2 "Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself. ###### v3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him that you make your ways perfect? ###### v4 Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment? ###### v5 Isn't your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities. ###### v6 For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing. ###### v7 You haven't given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. ###### v8 But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it. ###### v9 You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken. ###### v10 Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you, ###### v11 or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you. ###### v12 "Isn't God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are! ###### v13 You say, 'What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness? ###### v14 Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn't see. He walks on the vault of the sky.' ###### v15 Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden, ###### v16 who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream, ###### v17 who said to God, 'Depart from us;' and, 'What can the Almighty do for us?' ###### v18 Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me. ###### v19 The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them, ###### v20 saying, 'Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed their remnant.' ###### v21 "Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace. By it, good will come to you. ###### v22 Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart. ###### v23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents. ###### v24 Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks. ###### v25 The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you. ###### v26 For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and will lift up your face to God. ###### v27 You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You will pay your vows. ###### v28 You will also decree a thing, and it will be established to you. Light will shine on your ways. ###### v29 When they cast down, you will say, 'be lifted up.' He will save the humble person. ###### v30 He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands." *** [[Job-21|← Job 21]] | [[Job]] | [[Job-23|Job 23 →]]