Job 22

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²“Can a man be of use to God? Can even a wise man benefit Him?

³Does it delight the Almighty that you are righteous? Does He profit if your ways are blameless?

⁴Is it for your reverence that He rebukes you and enters into judgment against you?

⁵Is not your wickedness great? Are not your iniquities endless?

⁶For you needlessly demanded security from your brothers and deprived the naked of their clothing.

⁷You gave no water to the weary and withheld food from the famished,

⁸while the land belonged to a mighty man, and a man of honor lived on it.

⁹You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.

¹⁰Therefore snares surround you, and sudden peril terrifies you;

¹¹it is so dark you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.

¹²Is not God as high as the heavens? Look at the highest stars, how lofty they are!

¹³Yet you say: ‘What does God know? Does He judge through thick darkness?

¹⁴Thick clouds veil Him so He does not see us as He traverses the vault of heaven.’

¹⁵Will you stay on the ancient path that wicked men have trod?

¹⁶They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were swept away by a flood.