Eliphaz Speaks: Job’s Wickedness Is Great
Then aEliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 a“Can a man be profitable to God?
Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right,
or is it gain to him if you amake your ways blameless?
4 Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you
and aenters into judgment with you?
5 Is not your evil abundant?
There is no end to your iniquities.
6 For you have aexacted pledges of your brothers for nothing
band stripped the naked of their clothing.
7 You have given no water to the weary to drink,
and you have awithheld bread from the hungry.
8 aThe man with power possessed the land,
and bthe favored man lived in it.
9 You have asent widows away empty,
and bthe arms of cthe fatherless were crushed.
10 Therefore asnares are all around you,
and sudden terror overwhelms you,
11 or adarkness, so that you cannot see,
and a bflood of cwater covers you.
12 “Is not God high in the heavens?
See athe highest stars, how lofty they are!
13 But you say, a‘What does God know?
Can he judge through bthe deep darkness?
14 aThick clouds veil him, so that he does not see,
and he walks on the vault of heaven.’
15 Will you keep to the old way
that wicked men have trod?
16 They were snatched away abefore their time;
their foundation was washed away.
17 They said to God, a‘Depart from us,’
and b‘What can the Almighty do to us?’
18 Yet he filled their houses with good things—
but athe counsel of the wicked is far from me.
19 aThe righteous see it and are glad;
the innocent one bmocks at them,
20 saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off,
and what they left athe fire has consumed.’
21 a“Agree with God, and bbe at peace;
thereby good will come to you.
22 Receive instruction from ahis mouth,
and blay up his words in your heart.
23 If you areturn to the Almighty you will be bbuilt up;
if you cremove injustice far from your tents,
24 if you lay gold in athe dust,
and gold of bOphir among the stones of the torrent‑bed,
25 then the Almighty will be your gold
and your precious silver.
26 For then you awill delight yourself in the Almighty
and blift up your face to God.
27 You will amake your prayer to him, and he will hear you,
and you will bpay your vows.
28 You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,
and alight will shine on your ways.
29 For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’;
but he saves athe lowly.
30 He adelivers even the one who is not innocent,
who will be delivered through bthe cleanness of your hands.”