Job 22
Common English Bible
Job’s sins
22 Then Eliphaz from Teman answered:
2 Can a human being be useful to God?
Can an intelligent person bring profit?
3 Does the Almighty delight in your innocence?
Does he gain when you perfect your ways?
4 Does he rebuke you for your piety,
bring you in for judgment?
5 Isn’t your wickedness massive,
your iniquity endless?
6 You have taken payments from your family for no reason;
stripped the naked, leaving no clothes;
7 denied water to the thirsty,
withheld bread from the starving.
(8 The powerful own land;
the favored live in it.)
9 You have sent widows away empty;
crushed orphans’ resources.
10 For this reason, snares surround you;
sudden dread brings panic to you
11 or a darkness that you can’t see;
rushing water will cover you.
God’s activity
12 Isn’t God in the heights of heaven;
see how high the topmost stars are?
13 You say: “What does God know?
Can he judge through thick clouds?
14 Clouds conceal him so he can’t see
while he walks on heaven’s rim.”
15 Will you keep the ancient way
traveled by sinful persons,
16 who were snatched prematurely
when a river flooded their foundations,
17 who say to God, “Turn away from us;
what can the Almighty do to us?”
18 Yet he filled their houses with good things;
a sinner’s logic is beyond me.
19 The righteous see and rejoice;
the innocent mock them:
20 our enemies are certainly cut off;
fire will devour what’s left of them.
Turn to God
21 Get along well with God and be at peace;
from this something good will come to you.
22 Receive instruction from his mouth;
put his words in your mind.
23 If you return to the Almighty,[a] you will be restored;
if you keep wrongdoing out of your tent.
24 Lay your prized possession in the dust,
your gold from Ophir on a rock in a desert streambed.
25 The Almighty will be your prized possession,
silver piled up for you.
26 Then you will take pleasure in the Almighty;
lift up your face to God.
27 You will pray to him, and he will hear you;
you will fulfill your solemn promises.
28 If you decree something, it will stand;
light will shine on your ways.
29 When they’re humbled, you will say: “Cheer up;
God will rescue the lowly.
30 He will deliver the guilty;
they will be saved by your pure hands.”
Job 22
King James Version
22 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
2 Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?
3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?
4 Will he reprove thee for fear of thee? will he enter with thee into judgment?
5 Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?
6 For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
7 Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.
8 But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honourable man dwelt in it.
9 Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
10 Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee;
11 Or darkness, that thou canst not see; and abundance of waters cover thee.
12 Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!
13 And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud?
14 Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven.
15 Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?
16 Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:
17 Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?
18 Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
19 The righteous see it, and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn.
20 Whereas our substance is not cut down, but the remnant of them the fire consumeth.
21 Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.
22 Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.
23 If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.
24 Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.
25 Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver.
26 For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.
27 Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.
28 Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.
29 When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.
30 He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible