Eliphaz Speaks: Job's Wickedness Is Great

¹Then zEliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

²a“Can a man be profitable to God?

Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

³Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right,

or is it gain to him if you bmake your ways blameless?

⁴Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you

and centers into judgment with you?

⁵Is not your evil abundant?

There is no end to your iniquities.

⁶For you have dexacted pledges of your brothers for nothing

eand stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷You have given no water to the weary to drink,

and you have fwithheld bread from the hungry.

⁸gThe man with power possessed the land,

and hthe favored man lived in it.

⁹You have isent widows away empty,

and jthe arms of kthe fatherless were crushed.

¹⁰Therefore lsnares are all around you,

and sudden terror overwhelms you,

¹¹or mdarkness, so that you cannot see,

and a nflood of owater covers you.

¹²“Is not God high in the heavens?

See pthe highest stars, how lofty they are!

¹³But you say, q‘What does God know?

Can he judge through rthe deep darkness?

¹⁴sThick clouds veil him, so that he does not see,

and he walks on the vault of heaven.’

¹⁵Will you keep to the old way

that wicked men have trod?

¹⁶They were snatched away tbefore their time;

their foundation was washed away.1

¹⁷They said to God, u‘Depart from us,’

and v‘What can the Almighty do to us?’2

¹⁸Yet he filled their houses with good things—

but wthe counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁹xThe righteous see it and are glad;

the innocent one ymocks at them,

²⁰saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off,

and what they left zthe fire has consumed.’

²¹a“Agree with God, and bbe at peace;

thereby good will come to you.

²²Receive instruction from chis mouth,

and dlay up his words in your heart.

²³If you ereturn to the Almighty you will be fbuilt up;

if you gremove injustice far from your tents,

²⁴if you lay gold in hthe dust,

and gold of iOphir among the stones of the torrent-bed,

²⁵then the Almighty will be your gold

and your precious silver.

²⁶For then you jwill delight yourself in the Almighty

and klift up your face to God.

²⁷You will lmake your prayer to him, and he will hear you,

and you will mpay your vows.

²⁸You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,

and nlight will shine on your ways.

²⁹For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’;3

but he saves othe lowly.

³⁰He pdelivers even the one who is not innocent,

who will be delivered through qthe cleanness of your hands.”