Job 22
World English Bible Protestant Edition, 2020 stable text
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Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
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“Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
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Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him that you make your ways perfect?
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Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment?
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Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.
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For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
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You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
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But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it.
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You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
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Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,
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or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.
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“Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!
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You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?
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Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see. He walks on the vault of the sky.’
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Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden,
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who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,
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who said to God, ‘Depart from us!’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’
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Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
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The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them,
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saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed their remnant.’
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“Acquaint yourself with him now, and be at peace. By it, good will come to you.
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Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.
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If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.
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Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.
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The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you.
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For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and will lift up your face to God.
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You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You will pay your vows.
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You will also decree a thing, and it will be established to you. Light will shine on your ways.
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When they cast down, you will say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person.
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He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”