2.4 KiB
Eliphaz Speaks
Chapter 22
-
Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
-
Can a man be of any use to God? Can even a wise man be of use to him?
-
Does it delight the Almighty if you are righteous? Does he profit if you perfect your behavior?
-
Does he correct you and take you to court because of your piety?
-
Isn't your wickedness abundant and aren't your iniquities endless?
-
For you took collateral from your brothers without cause, stripping off their clothes and leaving them naked.
-
You gave no water to the thirsty and withheld food from the famished,
-
while the land belonged to a powerful man and an influential man lived on it.
-
You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.
-
Therefore snares surround you, and sudden dread terrifies you,
-
or darkness, so you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.
-
Isn't God as high as the heavens? And look at the highest stars--how lofty they are!
-
Yet you say, "What does God know? Can he judge through total darkness?
-
Clouds veil him so that he cannot see, as he walks on the circle of the sky."
-
Will you continue on the ancient path that wicked men have walked?
-
They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were washed away by a river.
-
They were the ones who said to God, "Leave us alone!" and "What can the Almighty do to us?"
-
But it was he who filled their houses with good things. The counsel of the wicked is far from me!
-
The righteous see this and rejoice; the innocent mock them, saying,
-
"Surely our opponents are destroyed, and fire has consumed what they left behind."
-
Come to terms with God and be at peace; in this way good will come to you.
-
Receive instruction from his mouth, and place his sayings in your heart.
-
If you return to the Almighty, you will be renewed.
If you banish injustice from your tent
-
and consign your gold to the dust, the gold of Ophir to the stones in the wadis,
-
the Almighty will be your gold and your finest silver.
-
Then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.
-
You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.
-
When you make a decision, it will be carried out, and light will shine on your ways.
-
When others are humiliated and you say, "Lift them up," God will save the humble.
-
He will even rescue the guilty one, who will be rescued by the purity of your hands.