Job 22-24
Complete Jewish Bible
22 Next Elifaz the Teimani replied:
2 “Can a human be of advantage to God?
Can even the wisest benefit him?
3 Does Shaddai gain if you are righteous?
Does he profit if you make your ways blameless?
4 “Is he rebuking you because you fear him?
Is this why he enters into judgment with you?
5 Isn’t it because your wickedness is great?
Aren’t your iniquities endless?
6 “For you kept your kinsmen’s goods as collateral for no reason,
you stripped the poorly clothed of what clothing they have,
7 you didn’t give water to the weary to drink,
you withheld food from the hungry.
8 As a wealthy man, an owner of land,
and as a man of rank, who lives on it,
9 you sent widows away empty-handed
and left the arms of orphans crushed.
10 “No wonder there are snares all around you,
and sudden terror overwhelms you,
11 or darkness , so that you can’t see,
and a flood of water that covers you up!
12 “Isn’t God in the heights of heaven,
looking [down even] on the highest stars?
13 Yet you say, ‘What does God know?
Can he see through thick darkness to judge?
14 The clouds veil him off, so that he can’t see;
he just wanders around in heaven.’
15 “Are you going to keep to the old way,
the one the wicked have trodden,
16 the ones snatched away before their time,
whose foundations a flood swept away?
17 They said to God, ‘Leave us alone!
What can Shaddai do to us?’
18 Yet he himself had filled their homes with good things!
(But the advice of the wicked is far away from me.)
19 The righteous saw this and rejoiced;
the innocent laughed them to scorn —
20 ‘Indeed, our substance has not been not cut off,
but the fire has consumed their wealth.’
21 “Learn to be at peace with [God];
in this way good will come [back] to you.
22 Please! Receive instruction from his mouth,
and take his words to heart.
23 If you return to Shaddai, you will be built up.
If you drive wickedness far from your tents,
24 if you lay your treasure down in the dust
and the gold of Ofir among the rocks in the vadis,
25 and let Shaddai be your treasure
and your sparkling silver;
26 then Shaddai will be your delight,
you will lift up your face to God;
27 you will entreat him, and he will hear you,
and you will pay what you vowed;
28 what you decide to do will succeed,
and light will shine on your path;
29 when someone is brought down, you will say, ‘It was pride,
because [God] saves the humble.’
30 “He delivers even the unclean;
so if your hands are clean, you will be delivered.”
23 Then Iyov answered:
2 “Today too my complaint is bitter;
my hand is weighed down because of my groaning.
3 I wish I knew where I could find him;
then I would go to where he is.
4 I would state my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know his answering words
and grasp what he would tell me.
6 Would he browbeat me with his great power?
No, he would pay attention to me.
7 There an upright person could reason with him;
thus I might be forever acquitted by my judge.
8 “If I head east, he isn’t there;
if I head west, I don’t detect him,
9 if I turn north, I don’t spot him;
in the south he is veiled, and I still don’t see him.
10 Yet he knows the way I take;
when he has tested me, I will come out like gold.
11 My feet have stayed in his footsteps;
I keep to his way without turning aside.
12 I don’t withdraw from his lips’ command;
I treasure his words more than my daily food.
13 “But he has no equal, so who can change him?
What he desires, he does.
14 He will accomplish what is decreed for me,
and he has many plans like this.
15 This is why I am terrified of him;
the more I think about it, the more afraid I am —
16 God has undermined my courage;
Shaddai frightens me.
17 Yet I am not cut off by the darkness;
he has protected me from the deepest gloom.
24 “Why are times not kept by Shaddai?
Why do those who know him not see his days?
2 There are those who move boundary markers;
they carry off flocks and pasture them;
3 they drive away the orphan’s donkey;
as collateral, they seize the widow’s ox.
4 They push the needy out of the way —
the poor of the land are forced into hiding;
5 like wild donkeys in the wilderness,
they have to go out and scavenge food,
[hoping that] the desert
will provide food for their children.
6 They must reap in fields that are not their own
and gather late grapes in the vineyards of the wicked.
7 They pass the night without clothing, naked,
uncovered in the cold,
8 wet with mountain rain,
and hugging the rock for lack of shelter.
9 “There are those who pluck orphans from the breast
and [those who] take [the clothes of] the poor in pledge,
10 so that they go about stripped, unclothed;
they go hungry, as they carry sheaves [of grain];
11 between these men’s rows [of olives], they make oil;
treading their winepresses, they suffer thirst.
12 Men are groaning in the city,
the mortally wounded are crying for help,
yet God finds nothing amiss!
13 “There are those who rebel against the light —
they don’t know its ways or stay in its paths.
14 The murderer rises with the light
to kill the poor and needy;
while at night he is like a thief.
15 The eye of the adulterer too waits for twilight;
he thinks, ‘No eye will see me’;
but [to be sure], he covers his face.
16 When it’s dark, they break into houses;
in the daytime, they stay out of sight.
[None of them] know the light.
17 For to all of them deep darkness is like morning,
for the terrors of deep darkness are familiar to them.
18 “May they be scum on the surface of the water,
may their share of land be cursed,
may no one turn on the way of their vineyards,
19 may drought and heat steal away their snow water
and Sh’ol those who have sinned.
20 May the womb forget them,
may worms find them sweet,
may they no longer be remembered —
thus may iniquity be snapped like a stick.
21 They devour childless women
and give no help to widows.
22 “Yet God keeps pulling the mighty along —
they get up, even when not trusting their own lives.
23 However, even if God lets them rest in safety,
his eyes are on their ways.
24 They are exalted for a little while;
and then they are gone,
brought low, gathered in like all others,
shriveled up like ears of grain.
25 “And even if it isn’t so now,
still no one can prove me a liar
and show that my words are worthless.”
Iyov 22-24
Orthodox Jewish Bible
22 Then Eliphaz of Teman answered and said,
2 Can a gever be profitable unto El, as he that has seichel may be profitable unto himself?
3 Is it any pleasure to Shaddai, that thou art tzaddik? Or is it gain to Him, that thou makest thy ways blameless?
4 Is it for thy yireh [Elohim] that He reproves thee? Will He enter with thee into mishpat?
5 Is not thy rah great? And thine avonot infinite?
6 For thou hast exacted a pledge from thy brother for naught, and stripped the arummim (naked ones) of their clothing.
7 Thou hast not given mayim to the weary to drink, and thou hast withheld lechem from the hungry.
8 But as for the ish zeroa (mighty man), his is ha’aretz; and the honorable man dwelt therein.
9 Thou hast sent almanot away empty, and the arms of the yetomim have been broken.
10 Therefore pachim (snares) are around thee, and sudden pachad troubleth thee;
11 Or choshech, that thou canst not see; and overflow of mayim cover thee.
12 Is not Eloah in the height of Shomayim? And hinei the rosh kokhavim, how high they are!
13 And thou sayest, How doth El know? Can He judge through the thick cloud?
14 Thick clouds veil Him, that He seeth not; and He walketh in the vault of Shomayim.
15 Wilt thou note the orach olam which wicked men have trodden?
16 Who were cut down before their time, whose yesod was overflown with a flood;
17 Who said unto El, Depart from us; and what can Shaddai do to them?
18 Yet He filled their batim (houses) with tov; but the etza (counsel) of the resha’im is far from me.
19 The tzaddikim see it, and are glad, and the naki (innocent) laugh them to scorn.
20 Verily our foe is destroyed, and the abundance of them the eish consumeth.
21 Acquaint now thyself with Him, and so hast thou shalom; thereby tovah shall come unto thee.
22 Receive, now, torah from His mouth, and lay up His words in thine lev.
23 If thou return to Shaddai, thou shalt be restored; if thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy ohalim;
24 Then shalt thou lay up gold as aphar, and that of Ophir as the tzur of the brooks.
25 Yea, Shaddai shall be thy gold, and thy precious kesef.
26 For then shalt thou have thy delight in Shaddai, and shalt lift up thy face unto Eloah.
27 Thou shalt make thy prayer unto Him, and He shall hear thee, and thou shalt fulfill thy nederim.
28 Thou shalt also decide a matter, and it shall be established unto thee, and the ohr shall shine upon thy ways.
29 When they are cast down, thou shalt say, Arise, and He shall save the one with low eynayim (i.e., humility).
30 He shall deliver even the guilty; and he is delivered by the bar (cleanness) of thine hands.
23 Then Iyov answered and said,
2 Even hayom (today) is my complaint bitter; my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
3 Oh that I knew where I might find Him! That I might come even to His techunah (abode)!
4 I would order my mishpat (cause) before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know the words which He would answer me, and have binah of what He would say unto me.
6 Will He contend against me with His great koach? No, but He would pay heed to me.
7 There the yashar might dispute with Him; so should I be delivered forever from my Shofet (Judge).
8 Hen (behold), I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him;
9 On the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him; He hideth himself yamin (on the right hand), that I cannot see Him;
10 But He knoweth the derech that I take; when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as zahav.
11 My regel hath held to His steps, over His way have I been shomer, and not turned aside.
12 Neither have I gone back from the mitzvah of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my appointed portion.
13 But He stands alone, and who can turn Him? And what His nefesh desireth, even that He doeth.
14 For He accomplisheth the thing that is appointed for me; and rabbot (many) such things are with Him.
15 Al-ken (therefore) am I troubled at His presence; when I consider, I am afraid of Him.
16 For El maketh my lev dejected, and Shaddai troubleth me,
17 Because I was not cut off from before the choshech, neither hath He hidden deep darkness from my face.
24 Why are times [for judgment] from Shaddai not kept, and why do those who have da’as of him not see his yamim [days [of assize])?
2 Some move the boundary stones; they steal edar, and pasture them.
3 They drive away the chamor of the yetomim, they take the ox of the almanah for a pledge.
4 They thrust the needy out of the derech; the poor of the eretz needs hide themselves together.
5 Look, as wild donkeys in the midbar go they forth to their work; foraging for teref (nourishment); the wilderness yieldeth lechem for them and for their na’arim.
6 They reap every one his fodder in the sadeh, and they glean the kerem of the resha’im.
7 They spend the night arom (naked) without levush (clothing), they have no covering in the cold.
8 They are wet with the rain of the harim, and embrace the tzur for want of a shelter.
9 They pluck the yatom from the breast, and seize the oni for debt.
10 They cause him to go arom without levush, and they take away the omer (sheaf) from the hungry;
11 Which crush olives within their walls, and tread their winepresses, yet suffer thirst.
12 Men groan from out of the Ir, and the nefesh of the chalalim (wounded ones) crieth out, yet Eloah chargeth not tiflah (folly) to them.
13 They are of those that are moredei ohr (rebelling ones against the light); they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.
14 The rotzeach rising with the daylight killeth the oni and needy, and in the lailah is like a ganav.
15 The eye also of the no’ef is shomer, watching for the dusk’s twilight, saying, No eye shall see me, and puts something to hide his face.
16 In the choshech they dig through batim (houses); in the daytime they shut themselves in; they have no da’as of the ohr.
17 For the boker is to them even as the tzalmavet; they are friends with the terrors of tzalmavet.
18 Swiftly vanishing is he on the surface of the mayim; their chelek is cursed in ha’aretz; he turneth no more in the derech of the kramim (vineyards).
19 Drought and heat consume the snow waters; so doth Sheol those which have sinned.
20 The rechem (womb) shall forget him; the worm shall feast on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken like an etz.
21 He plundereth the barren that beareth not; and doeth not good to the almanah.
22 He drags away also the mighty with his ko’ach; he riseth up, and no man is sure of life.
23 Though it be given him to be in safety, and he be sustained, yet His eynayim are upon their ways.
24 They are exalted me’at (for a little while), then they are no more and are withered and snatched away like all others, and cut off like the tops of the ears of grain.
25 And if it be not so, who will charge me with lying, and make my milah (word) worth nothing? [T.N. Notice the question answered by Romans, Galatians, and Gn 15:6 as well as Chabakuk 2:4 is stated in Job 25:4 below; see Ephesians 2:8-9 and Ro 3:24,26, 28; 4:2; 5:1,9; Ga 2:16,17; 3:11, 24; 5:4; Ti 3:7; this the most important question raised in the Bible: it is for eternity]
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International