Job 22: 1 - 24: 25
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.” |
1Then Job answered, |
2“Even today my complaint is rebellious. |
His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. |
3Oh that I knew where I might find him! |
That I might come even to his seat! |
4I would set my cause in order before him, |
and fill my mouth with arguments. |
5I would know the words which he would answer me, |
and understand what he would tell me. |
6Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? |
No, but he would listen to me. |
7There the upright might reason with him, |
so I should be delivered forever from my judge. |
8“If I go east, he is not there; |
if west, I can’t find him; |
9He works to the north, but I can’t see him. |
He turns south, but I can’t catch a glimpse of him. |
10But he knows the way that I take. |
When he has tried me, I will come out like gold. |
11My foot has held fast to his steps. |
I have kept his way, and not turned away. |
12I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips. |
I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. |
13But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? |
What his soul desires, even that he does. |
14For he performs that which is appointed for me. |
Many such things are with him. |
15Therefore I am terrified at his presence. |
When I consider, I am afraid of him. |
16For God has made my heart faint. |
The Almighty has terrified me. |
17Because I was not cut off before the darkness, |
neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face. |
1“Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty? |
Why don’t those who know him see his days? |
2There are people who remove the landmarks. |
They violently take away flocks, and feed them. |
3They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, |
and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. |
4They turn the needy out of the way. |
The poor of the earth all hide themselves. |
5Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, |
they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food. |
The wilderness yields them bread for their children. |
6They cut their food in the field. |
They glean the vineyard of the wicked. |
7They lie all night naked without clothing, |
and have no covering in the cold. |
8They are wet with the showers of the mountains, |
and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter. |
9There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, |
and take a pledge of the poor, |
10So that they go around naked without clothing. |
Being hungry, they carry the sheaves. |
11They make oil within the walls of these men. |
They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst. |
12From out of the populous city, men groan. |
The soul of the wounded cries out, |
yet God doesn’t regard the folly. |
13“These are of those who rebel against the light. |
They don’t know its ways, |
nor stay in its paths. |
14The murderer rises with the light. |
He kills the poor and needy. |
In the night he is like a thief. |
15The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, |
saying, ‘No eye will see me.’ |
He disguises his face. |
16In the dark they dig through houses. |
They shut themselves up in the daytime. |
They don’t know the light. |
17For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, |
for they know the terrors of the thick darkness. |
18“They are foam on the surface of the waters. |
Their portion is cursed in the earth. |
They don’t turn into the way of the vineyards. |
19Drought and heat consume the snow waters, |
so does Sheol those who have sinned. |
20The womb will forget him. |
The worm will feed sweetly on him. |
He will be no more remembered. |
Unrighteousness will be broken as a tree. |
21He devours the barren who don’t bear. |
He shows no kindness to the widow. |
22Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. |
He rises up who has no assurance of life. |
23God gives them security, and they rest in it. |
His eyes are on their ways. |
24They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. |
Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, |
and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain. |
25If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar, |
and make my speech worth nothing?” |
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