Job 22 · Clearspring

Eliphaz: Can a Man Be of Use to God?

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,+ ²“Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.+ ³Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him that you make your ways perfect?+ ⁴Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgement?+ ⁵Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.+ ⁶For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.+ ⁷You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.+ ⁸But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honourable man, he lived in it.+ ⁹You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.+ ¹⁰Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,+ ¹¹or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.+ ¹²“Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!+ ¹³You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?+ ¹⁴Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see. He walks on the vault of the sky.’+ ¹⁵Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden,+ ¹⁶who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,+ ¹⁷who said to God, ‘Depart from us!’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’+ ¹⁸Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.+ ¹⁹The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them,+ ²⁰saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed their remnant.’+ ²¹“Acquaint yourself with him now, and be at peace. By it, good will come to you.+ ²²Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.+ ²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.+ ²⁴Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir amongst the stones of the brooks.+ ²⁵The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you.+ ²⁶For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and will lift up your face to God.+ ²⁷You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You will pay your vows.+ ²⁸You will also decree a thing, and it will be established to you. Light will shine on your ways.+ ²⁹When they cast down, you will say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person.+ ³⁰He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”+

Eliphaz: Can a Man Be of Use to God?

Study Job 22