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Job 22: What the Passage Says

67 claims across 30 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Job 22 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Eliphaz the Temanite speaks for the third time. He argues that God gains nothing from a person's goodness, so Job's punishment must come from real guilt, and he lists specific crimes he says Job committed against the poor, widows, and orphans. He accuses Job of thinking God cannot see through the clouds, and points to wicked people of long ago who were swept away. He closes by urging Job to return to the Almighty, promising peace, answered prayer, and restored wealth if he does.

Claim by Claim

  1. 22:1
    • Eliphaz the Temanite answered.
    • Eliphaz spoke.
  2. 22:2
    • Eliphaz asks whether a man can be of profit to God.
    • Eliphaz says a wise man is of profit to himself.
    • The question implies a man cannot benefit God as he benefits himself.
  3. 22:3
    • Eliphaz asks whether it is any pleasure to the Almighty that Job is righteous.
    • Eliphaz asks whether it is any gain to God that Job makes his ways perfect.
  4. 22:4
    • Eliphaz asks whether God reproves Job because of Job's reverence for him.
    • Eliphaz asks whether God enters into judgment with Job because of Job's reverence.
  5. 22:5
    • Eliphaz asks whether Job's wickedness is not great.
    • Eliphaz asks whether Job's iniquities are not without end.
  6. 22:6
    • Eliphaz says Job took a pledge from his brothers without cause.
    • Eliphaz says Job stripped the clothing off the naked.
  7. 22:7
    • Eliphaz says Job gave no water to the weary to drink.
    • Eliphaz says Job withheld bread from the hungry.
  8. 22:8
    • Eliphaz says the man of strength possessed the land.
    • Eliphaz says the man whose face was lifted up, the favored man, dwelt in the land.
  9. 22:9
    • Eliphaz says Job sent widows away empty-handed.
    • Eliphaz says the arms of the fatherless were crushed.
  10. 22:10
    • Eliphaz says that for this reason snares are all around Job.
    • Eliphaz says sudden dread terrifies Job.
  11. 22:11
    • Eliphaz says darkness is such that Job cannot see.
    • Eliphaz says a flood of waters covers Job.
  12. 22:12
    • Eliphaz asks whether God is not in the height of heaven.
    • Eliphaz tells Job to look at the topmost stars, how high they are.
  13. 22:13
    • Eliphaz says Job says, How does God know?
    • Eliphaz says Job asks whether God can judge through the thick darkness.
  14. 22:14
    • Job is quoted as saying thick clouds are a covering to God so that he does not see.
    • Job is quoted as saying God walks on the vault of heaven.
  15. 22:15
    • Eliphaz asks whether Job will keep to the ancient way.
    • Eliphaz says wicked men have trodden that ancient way.
  16. 22:16
    • Eliphaz says those men were snatched away before their time.
    • Eliphaz says their foundation was poured away like a river in flood.
  17. 22:17
    • Those men said to God, Depart from us.
    • Those men asked what the Almighty could do for them.
    • The Hebrew phrase is open between what the Almighty could do for them and what he could do to them.
  18. 22:18
    • Eliphaz says God filled their houses with good things.
    • Eliphaz says the counsel of the wicked is far from him.
  19. 22:19
    • The righteous see it and are glad.
    • The innocent laughs them to scorn.
  20. 22:20
    • The innocent say that what is theirs is not cut off.
    • The Hebrew word is open between our substance and those who rose against us, so the saying reads either that our estate is not cut off or that our adversaries are cut off.
    • The innocent say fire has consumed the remnant of them.
  21. 22:21
    • Eliphaz tells Job to become acquainted with God.
    • Eliphaz tells Job to be at peace.
    • Eliphaz says good will come to Job by this.
  22. 22:22
    • Eliphaz tells Job to receive instruction from God's mouth.
    • Eliphaz tells Job to lay up God's words in his heart.
  23. 22:23
    • Eliphaz says if Job returns to the Almighty he will be built up.
    • Eliphaz says Job will put iniquity far away from his tents.
  24. 22:24
    • Eliphaz says Job will then lay his gold on the dust.
    • Eliphaz says Job will lay the gold of Ophir among the stones of the streambeds.
  25. 22:25
    • Eliphaz says the Almighty will be Job's precious ore.
    • The Hebrew word is open between gold ore and defense, so the line reads either that the Almighty will be Job's gold or that he will be Job's defense.
    • Eliphaz says Job will have silver in abundance.
  26. 22:26
    • Eliphaz says Job will then take delight in the Almighty.
    • Eliphaz says Job will lift up his face to God.
  27. 22:27
    • Eliphaz says Job will pray to God.
    • Eliphaz says God will hear Job.
    • Eliphaz says Job will pay his vows.
  28. 22:28
    • Eliphaz says Job will decree a thing and it will be established for him.
    • Eliphaz says light will shine upon Job's ways.
  29. 22:29
    • Eliphaz says that when men are cast down Job will say there is lifting up.
    • Eliphaz says God will save the one whose eyes are lowered.
  30. 22:30
    • Eliphaz says God will deliver the island of the innocent.
    • The Hebrew phrase is open between the island of the innocent and one who is not innocent.
    • Eliphaz says that one is delivered through the cleanness of Job's hands.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

22:1
Eliphaz 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.
22:3
"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.
22:4
In 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.
22:6
A 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.
22:7
In a dry country, giving water to a traveler and food to the hungry was not generosity but basic duty. Refusing hospitality to someone passing through was treated as a serious offense, not simply as being stingy.
22:8
The 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.
22:9
Widows 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.
22:10
A snare was a hidden loop of cord set on the ground to catch birds or small animals by the leg. The image is of a man walking through country he thinks is safe, with traps he cannot see set all around him.
22:11
Rain in that land could fill a dry valley with water in minutes. A sudden flood was a common picture for sudden ruin.
22:12
The heavens means the sky, way up high above the clouds.
22:13
Thick darkness was a standard picture of the storm cloud God was imagined to live inside. Eliphaz is accusing Job of claiming that God's own cloud blocks his view of what happens on earth.
22:14
Ancient 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.
22:15
"Marked" in the King James means noticed or studied carefully. The "old way" is the path taken by an earlier, wicked generation, and the next verse describes how that generation ended.
22:16
"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.
22:17
The King James "what can the Almighty do for them" reads oddly. In the Hebrew this is a taunt, not a complaint: what can the Almighty do TO us? These are people boasting that God cannot touch them, not people disappointed that he will not help.
22:18
Job 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.
22:19
"Laugh them to scorn" is older English for mocking someone openly, to their face. It is not private amusement but public ridicule of people who have been brought down.
22:20
The 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.
22:21
"Acquaint now thyself with him" is not about learning facts about God. The verb suggests two parties who have been at odds coming to terms, so the sense is closer to settle with him, make your peace.
22:22
"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.
22:23
"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.
22:24
Ophir 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.
22:25
The King James "thy defence" translates a Hebrew word that means gold ore or precious metal, which is why modern translations read "the Almighty will be your gold." That fits what comes just before: throw your real gold away, and God himself becomes the treasure you own.
22:26
To "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.
22:27
A 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.
22:28
A decree is an order issued by someone with real authority, like a king or a judge, and it is expected to be carried out. Eliphaz is promising that Job's word would carry that kind of weight.
22:29
The King James is compressed here. The sense is that when other people are brought low, Job will be the one who says they should be lifted back up, and God will act on his word and rescue them.
22:30
The 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.

Read Job 22