CHAPTER 22
1And Eliphaz the Temanite spoke up and he said:
2Will a man avail with God,
will the discerning avail with Him?
3Does Shaddai desire that you be in the right,
or profit if your ways are blameless?
4Is it for your reverence that He reproves you,
comes to judgment against you?
5 Why, your evil is great,
and there is no end to your crimes.
6For you take pawn from your brother for naught,
and strip the naked of their clothes.
7No water do you give to the famished,
and from the hungry you hold back bread.
8And the strong-armed possesses the land,
the privileged dwells upon it.
9Widows you send off empty-handed,
and the arms of the orphans are crushed.
10 And so there are traps all around you,
sudden fear will strike you with terror,
11or darkness, where you cannot see,
and a spate of water will cover you.
12 Is not God in the height of the heavens?
See the topmost stars that are lofty.
13And you say, “What does God know?
Through thick cloud can He judge?
14Clouds are His shelter—He does not see,
on the rim of the heavens He walks.”
15Would you keep the age-old path
on which wrongdoers trod,
16who are shriveled before their time,
their foundation pours out like a river?
17Who say to God, “Turn away from us,”
and what can Shaddai do to them?
18When He has filled their homes with bounty—
the counsel of the wicked be far from me!
19The righteous shall see and rejoice,
and the innocent shall mock them.
20Their substance is surely destroyed,
and their remnant the fire consumes.
21 Be accustomed to Him, be at peace,
and through this will your comings be blessed.
22Take, pray, from His mouth instruction,
and set His utterances in your heart.
23If you come back to Shaddai, you’re restored,
if you banish evil from your tent,
24and lay your gold down in the dust,
on a brook-bordered rock your Ophir treasure,
25and Shaddai will be your gold,
heaped up silver for you.
26For then you’ll take pleasure in Shaddai,
27You will entreat Him and He will hear you,
and your vows you will pay.
28You will decree and it will come to be,
and light will gleam on your ways.
29 When they sink low and you say “Pride,”
who casts his eyes down He rescues.
30He lets the guilty escape,
he escapes through your spotless palms.