> [[job-21|← Previous]] | [[job-00|TOC]] | [[job-23|Next →]] --- # Job, Chapter 22 ## Chapter 22 **Eliphaz’s Third Speech.** 1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: ^job-22-1 2 Can a man be profitable to God? ^job-22-2 Can a wise man be profitable to him? 3 Does it please the Almighty that you are just? ^job-22-3 Does he gain if your ways are perfect? 4 Is it because of your piety that he reproves you— ^job-22-4 that he enters into judgment with you? 5 Is not your wickedness great, ^job-22-5 your iniquity endless? 6 You keep your relatives’ goods in pledge unjustly, ^job-22-6 leave them stripped naked of their clothing. 7 To the thirsty you give no water to drink, ^job-22-7 and from the hungry you withhold bread; 8 As if the land belonged to the powerful, ^job-22-8 and only the privileged could dwell in it! 9 You sent widows away empty-handed, ^job-22-9 and the resources of orphans are destroyed. 10 Therefore snares are round about you, ^job-22-10 sudden terror makes you panic, 11 Or darkness—you cannot see! ^job-22-11 A deluge of waters covers you. 12 Does not God, in the heights of the heavens, ^job-22-12 behold the top of the stars, high though they are? 13 Yet you say, “What does God know? ^job-22-13 Can he judge through the thick darkness? 14 Clouds hide him so that he cannot see ^job-22-14 as he walks around the circuit of the heavens!” 15 Do you indeed keep to the ancient way ^job-22-15 trodden by the worthless? 16 They were snatched before their time; ^job-22-16 their foundations a river swept away. 17 They said to God, “Let us alone!” ^job-22-17 and, “What can the Almighty do to us?” 18 Yet he had filled their houses with good things. ^job-22-18 The designs of the wicked are far from me! 19 The just look on and are glad, ^job-22-19 and the innocent deride them: 20 “Truly our enemies are destroyed, ^job-22-20 and what was left to them, fire has consumed!” 21 Settle with him and have peace. ^job-22-21 That way good shall come to you: 22 Receive instruction from his mouth, ^job-22-22 and place his words in your heart. 23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored; ^job-22-23 if you put iniquity far from your tent, 24 And treat raw gold as dust, ^job-22-24 the fine gold of Ophir as pebbles in the wadi, 25 Then the Almighty himself shall be your gold ^job-22-25 and your sparkling silver. 26 For then you shall delight in the Almighty, ^job-22-26 you shall lift up your face toward God. 27 Entreat him and he will hear you, ^job-22-27 and your vows you shall fulfill. 28 What you decide shall succeed for you, ^job-22-28 and upon your ways light shall shine. 29 For when they are brought low, you will say, “It is pride!” ^job-22-29 But downcast eyes he saves. 30 He will deliver whoever is innocent; ^job-22-30 you shall be delivered if your hands are clean. --- \* (22:1] – [27:23) The traditional three cycles of speeches breaks down in chaps. [22] – [27], because Zophar does not appear. This may be interpreted as a sign that the three friends see no point in further dialogue, or that Job’s replies have reduced them to silence, or that there has been a mistake in the transmission of the text (hence various transferrals of verses have been proposed to include Zophar, but without any textual evidence). \* (22:3) Another irony: God will “gain,” because he will have been proved right in his claim to the satan that Job is “perfect.” \* (22:6] – [9) This criticism of Job by Eliphaz is untrue (cf. [31:19]), but he is driven to it by his belief that God always acts justly, even when he causes someone to suffer; suffering is due to wrongdoing (cf. v. [29]). \* (22:18) The second part of the verse repeats [21:16]. \* (22:19) Them: the wicked. Eliphaz obviously thinks that the just can be pleased by God’s punishment of the wicked. Such pleasure at the downfall of the wicked is expressed elsewhere, e.g., [Ps 58:11]; [63:12]. \* (22:24) Ophir: see note on [Ps 45:10]. --- a. (22:2) [Jb 9:2]. b. (22:3) [Jb 35:7]. c. (22:6) [Jb 24:3]; [Dt 24:6], [17]; [[ezekiel-18|Ez 18]]:12, [16]. d. (22:9) [Jb 29:12] – [13]; [Dt 24:17]; [27:19]. e. (22:10) [Jb 18:8] – [10]. f. (22:12) [Jb 11:8]. g. (22:13] – [14) ([[psalm-10|Ps 10]]:11]; [73:11]; [94:7]; [Is 29:15]; ([[ezekiel-08|Ez 8]]:12]; [9:9]. h. (22:18) [Jb 21:16]. i. (22:19) [Ps 107:42]. j. (22:27) [Jb 33:26]. k. (22:29) [Ps 138:6]; [Prv 29:23]; ([[matthew-23|Mt 23]]:12]; ([[luke-01|Lk 1]]:52]; [Jas 4:10]; [1 Pt 5:5]. l. (22:30) [Jb 17:9]; ([[psalm-18|Ps 18]]:21], [25]; [24:4]. --- _New American Bible, revised edition_ (2010, 1991, 1986, 1970) Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. > [[job-21|← Previous]] | [[job-00|TOC]] | [[job-23|Next →]]