Job 22

Then Eliphaz, the man from Teman, answered Job:

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

NoteEliphaz is the first of Job's three friends to speak, and this is his third and last speech. Teman was a district of Edom, south-east of the Dead Sea, proverbial in the ancient world for its wise men.

2"Can any person be of use to God? Even a wise man is only of use to himself.

2Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?

3Does it give the Almighty any pleasure that you do what is right? Does he gain anything if you live a blameless life?

3Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?

Note"The Almighty" translates the Hebrew title Shaddai, an old name for God used far more often in Job than in any other book of the Hebrew Bible. Its literal sense is uncertain even in Hebrew.

4Is it because you respect him that he corrects you and brings you to trial?

4Will he reprove thee for fear of thee? will he enter with thee into judgment?

NoteIn the King James wording "for fear of thee" does not mean God is afraid of Job. "Fear" here is the old English sense of reverence or awe, Eliphaz is asking, sarcastically, whether it is Job's piety that has brought this punishment on him.

5Isn't your wrongdoing great? Aren't your sins without end?

5Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?

6You took things from your relatives as a pledge for no reason, and you took the clothes off people who had nothing else to wear.

6For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.

NoteA pledge was an object handed over to guarantee repayment of a loan, usually the only thing a poor man had, his outer cloak, which doubled as his blanket at night. Israelite custom and law required it to be returned by sundown. "Brother" here means a fellow member of one's own people or community, not a literal sibling.

7You gave no water to the person worn out with thirst, and you kept bread back from the hungry.

7Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.

8Meanwhile the land belonged to the man with power, and the man with high standing was the one who lived on it.

8But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honourable man dwelt in it.

NoteThe Hebrew calls the powerful man "the man of arm", a man whose claim rests on force. Eliphaz is accusing Job of letting land go to whoever was strong or well-connected while the poor of verses 6-7 went without.

9You sent widows away with nothing in their hands, and the strength of children without fathers was broken.

9Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

NoteWidows and fatherless children had no male provider and so no standing to press a claim in court; throughout the ancient Near East they are the standard pair for people wholly dependent on the fairness of others. To send a widow "away empty" means to refuse her petition.

10That is why traps are set all around you, and sudden terror shakes you.

10Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee;

11That is why it is too dark for you to see, and why a flood of water covers you.

11Or darkness, that thou canst not see; and abundance of waters cover thee.

12Isn't God as high as the heavens? Look at the highest stars and see how far above you they are.

12Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!

13Yet you say, 'What does God know? Can he judge through the thick dark clouds?

13And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud?

14Heavy clouds hide him, so he cannot see us, while he walks along the dome of the sky.'

14Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven.

NoteAncient Near Eastern picture of the world: the sky is a solid vault or dome arching over the earth, and God walks on top of it, screened from below by cloud. Job's supposed argument is that the screen works both ways, God cannot see through it either.

15Are you going to keep to the ancient road that wicked men have walked?

15Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?

16They were snatched away before their time, and the ground they stood on was washed out from under them by a flood.

16Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:

Note"Cut down out of time" is the King James for "snatched away before their time", i.e. dying young. The flood that washes out their foundations may be a general image of a torrent sweeping away a house, or an allusion to the great flood of Genesis; the Hebrew leaves it open.

17They said to God, 'Leave us alone. What can the Almighty do to us?'

17Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?

18Yet he was the one who filled their houses with good things. As for me, I stay far away from the thinking of the wicked.

18Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

NoteJob had used this same sentence ("the counsel of the wicked is far from me") in his own speech a chapter earlier, while arguing the opposite case. Eliphaz takes the line back off him.

19People who do right see what happens to them and are glad; the innocent laugh at them and say,

19The righteous see it, and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn.

20'Surely those who rose against us are wiped out, and fire has eaten up everything they had left.'

20Whereas our substance is not cut down, but the remnant of them the fire consumeth.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "our substance" in the King James can also be read as "those who rose against us", i.e. our adversaries, which is how most modern translations take it. Both readings are possible from the same consonants.

21Make peace with God now and settle things with him; then good will come to you.

21Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.

22Please accept the teaching that comes from his mouth, and store his words up in your heart.

22Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.

Note"Law" here translates torah, which in Hebrew means instruction or teaching given by a person with authority; it does not refer to a written legal code.

23If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up again, and you will put wrongdoing far away from your tents.

23If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.

Note"Tabernacles" in the King James simply means tents or dwelling-places, the ordinary word for where a man and his household live, not a place of worship.

24Then you will throw your gold down in the dust, and the fine gold of Ophir among the stones of the streambeds,

24Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.

NoteOphir was a distant region, its location now unknown, famous as the source of the purest gold traded in the ancient Near East; "gold of Ophir" was a byword for the finest quality. The image is of gold treated as worthless, thrown into the dirt and among the pebbles of a dry riverbed.

25and the Almighty himself will be your gold, and he will be the finest silver you own.

25Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver.

26For then you will find your joy in the Almighty, and you will be able to lift your face up to God.

26For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.

NoteTo "lift up your face" is an idiom for having nothing to be ashamed of, being able to look someone in the eye rather than staring at the ground.

27You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will keep the promises you made to him.

27Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.

NoteA vow was a promise made to God in a crisis, typically to bring a particular sacrifice or gift, which fell due once the prayer was answered. "Paying" the vow means carrying out what was promised.

28Whatever you decide will be carried out, and light will shine on the roads you travel.

28Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.

29When people are brought low and you say, 'Lift them up,' he will rescue the person who is humble.

29When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.

30He will rescue even the one who is not innocent, setting him free because your own hands are clean."

30He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.

NoteThe King James "the island of the innocent" reflects a Hebrew word spelled like the word for "island"; it is now generally read as a rare negative particle, giving "the one who is not innocent". Clean hands is a standard idiom for innocence of wrongdoing, as in a court case.