² “Can a man be of use to God?
Yes, can the wise be of use to him?
³ Is it a pleasure to Shaddai if you are righteous,
or^[b] a gain if you make your ways blameless?
⁴ Does he reprove you because of your reverence
or enter into judgment with you?
⁵ Is not your wickedness great,
and there is no end to your iniquities?
⁶ “Indeed, you have required a pledge from your family for nothing,
and you have stripped off the clothes of the naked.
⁷ You have given no water for the weary to drink,
and you withheld food from the hungry.
⁸ And the land belongs to the man of power,^[c]
and the favored^[d] lives in it.
⁹ You have sent widows away empty-handed,
and the arms of orphans were crushed.
¹⁰ Therefore trapping nets are all around you,
and panic suddenly terrifies you,
¹¹ or it is so dark you cannot see,
and a flood of water covers you.
¹² “Is not God in the height of the heavens?
But^[e] see how lofty are the highest stars.^[f]
13 And you ask, ‘What does God know?
Can he judge through deep gloom?
¹⁴ Thick clouds are a covering for him, so that he does not see;
and he walks about on the dome of heaven.’
¹⁵ Will you keep to the way of old
that the people of mischief have trod,
¹⁶ who were snatched away before their time,^[g]
whose foundation was washed away by a current?
¹⁷ Those who said to God, ‘Turn away from us,’
and ‘What can Shaddai do to us?’
¹⁸ Yet^[h] he himself^[i] filled up their houses with good things,
but^[j] the schemes of the wicked are repugnant to me.
¹⁹ The righteous see, and they rejoice,
but^[k] the innocent one mocks at them.
²⁰ Surely^[l] our foe perishes,
and fire has consumed their remainder.^[m]
21 “Please reconcile yourself with him,
and be at peace; in this way,^[n] good will come to you.
²² Please receive instruction from his mouth,
and place his words in your heart.
²³ If you return to Shaddai, you will be restored;
if you remove wickedness from your tent,
²⁴ and if you put gold ore in the dust,
and the gold of Ophir in the rock of wadis,
²⁵ then^[o] Shaddai will be your gold ore
and your precious silver.^[p]
26 Indeed, then you will delight yourself in Shaddai,
and you will expect that God will be good to you.^[q]
27 You will pray to him, and he will hear you,
and you will pay your vows.
²⁸ And you will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,
and light will shine on your ways.
²⁹ When they are humiliated, you say,^[r] ‘It is pride,’
for^[s] he saves the humble.^[t]
30 He will deliver the guilty,
and he will escape because of the cleanness of your hands.”