22:1–3 As a “caring” friend (cf. 2:11), Eliphaz begins by telling Job that God could not care less about his plight. The two questions in Job 22:2–3 center on God’s transcendence and self-sufficiency. God does not need man’s help in running the universe (“Can a man be profitable to God?”; v. 2a). Not even a smart, sensible, and skilled man could lend God a hand (“surely he who is wise is profitable to himself”; v. 2b). Contra the depiction of God in the prologue, where he takes great notice of Job’s piety, Eliphaz claims that God receives no pleasure or profit from Job’s blameless and upright life.

Eliphaz calls God “the Almighty” (Hb. shadday) five times in this chapter, more times than in any other chapter. Perhaps this name is used because Job has recently used it (21:15, 20). Or perhaps it is employed because it is a title that well expresses the distance and detachment Eliphaz is emphasizing. Either way, the Almighty has not been impressed by Job’s actions; he has not even noticed them.

22:4–11 This section also begins with a question, a sarcastic one: “Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you?” (v. 4). Eliphaz becomes extremely aggressive here. Even though God could not care less about Job’s supposed holiness, he somehow and for some reason notices his wickedness. In his punishing providence, God is rebuking Job and calling out his crimes.

    Is not your evil abundant?

    There is no end to your iniquities. (v. 5)

To call Job a sinner is one thing; to claim that his evil is abundant and his iniquities endless is quite the insensitive exaggeration. What has Job done?

The charges are next listed. Such a list is new. The friends have rarely made more than generalizations and guesses at Job’s sins (e.g., impatience, pride). Now Eliphaz makes three accusations (table 4.5).106

TABLE 4.5: Eliphaz’s Short List of Job’s Sins

* Regarding 22:8, though it could be an additional charge, the verse could also be related to what comes either before it (“You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry, though you were a powerful man, owning land—an honored man, living on it”; 22:7–8 NIV) or after it (“Although you were a powerful man, owning land, an honored man living on it, you sent widows away empty-handed, and the arms of the orphans you crushed”; 22:8–9 NET). We favor the second translation and interpretation.

The reader knows that this list is outrageous, but he or she also senses that so too does Eliphaz. In the months he has been with Job, has he seen Job ripping off his own family or not sharing his food with the famished?

Whatever the specific sins, the verdict is settled in Eliphaz’s mind by the fact of Job’s sufferings. The self-professed innocent man is guilty as charged. His punishment is just. Job is trapped and terrified by his sins (“therefore snares are all around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you”; v. 10). God’s judgment is consuming him. His feet are ensnared, the lights are turned off (“darkness, so that you cannot see”; v. 11a), and the waters of God’s wrath start to fill his jail cell (“a flood of water covers you”; v. 11b).

22:12–20 Just as Eliphaz ended the last section with God’s judgment depicted as “darkness” and a “flood of water” (v. 11), so he ends this section by speaking of the “fire” of God’s wrath (v. 20). He begins, however, with a psalm-like statement about the exalted God. The psalmist sings, “For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods” (Ps. 97:9). Eliphaz states, with a rhetorical question, “Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are!” (Job 22:12). The reason Eliphaz returns to the theme of God’s transcendence is to correct Job’s perception of reality.

In verses 13–20, three characters speak and one acts. Job speaks (“you say”; v. 13), the wicked speak (“they said to God”; v. 17), and the righteous speak (“saying”; v. 20); God acts (“he filled”; v. 18). In verses 13–14, Eliphaz misinterprets Job’s early statements (e.g., perhaps 7:17), putting these words in his mouth,

    You say, “What does God know?

    Can he judge through the deep darkness?

    Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see,

    and he walks on the vault of heaven.” (22:13–14)

The accusation here is that Job thinks that God is so exalted (“he walks on the vault of heaven”; 14b) that he cannot see through the clouds (“through the deep darkness,” v. 13b; “thick clouds,” v. 14a); and, because his perception is obstructed (“What does God know?” v. 13a; “he does not see,” v. 14a; cf. 21:14; Ps. 73:11), so too is his justice (“Can he judge through the deep darkness?”; Job 22:13b). In other words, God’s transcendence trumps his omniscience, his otherworldliness his care for the earth and earthlings.

In verses 15–18, Eliphaz describes the way and words of the wicked and how God wipes out their way and makes them eat their words. In verses 21–30, Eliphaz encourages Job to repent so he might reap the rewards of righteousness. Here, however, he warns him to escape the path of judgment:

    Will you keep to the old way

    that wicked men have trod?

    They were snatched away before their time;

    their foundation was washed away. (vv. 15–16)

The image is of that of the wicked walking on the old and well-worn path of wickedness when all of a sudden the rain starts. Hours pass. Days. Soon enough, like the generation of Noah (cf. Gen. 6:5–7, 11–13; 7:4, 11–12, 17–23; Matt. 24:37–39), the wicked are wiped out. Even the foundations of their homes are swept away in the flood (cf. Matt. 7:26–27). They thought they were untouchable, but their only relationship with their Creator was to mock his power: “They said to God, ‘Depart from us,’ and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’” (Job 22:17). They want to be left alone. But God will not leave them alone, and he has not let them alone. In fact, he has been good to them for so much of their lives (“he filled their houses with good things”; v. 18; cf. Matt. 5:45). The way of the wicked, Eliphaz continues, makes no sense to him (“the counsel of the wicked is far from me”; Job 22:18b). Or perhaps he is saying, in a more self-righteous tone, “Is not the plan of the wicked far from me?”107 He cannot conceive of how anyone would want to walk right into God’s wrath!

Eliphaz next steps back from the judgment scene not to weep for the wicked but to rejoice over them. He sings his version of Revelation’s Hallelujah chorus (cf. Rev. 19:1–4). He joins the voices of the saints:

    The righteous see it and are glad;

    the innocent one mocks at them,

    saying, “Surely our adversaries are cut off,

    and what they left the fire has consumed.” (Job 22:19–20)

The wicked and their wealth have been consumed by the fire of God, and the godly (“the righteous”/“the innocent”; v. 19) rejoice in it as they taunt the proud and foolish ways of their “adversaries” (v. 20a).

22:21–30 Because Eliphaz believes that Job has been ethically sinful and theologically naive (vv. 2–20), he concludes his final speech with a call to repentance and a promise of restoration (vv. 21–30). Verse 21 serves as an excellent summary: “Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you” (v. 21). To “agree with God,” of course, means to agree with Eliphaz. And to “receive instruction from his mouth” (and its parallel line—“and lay up his words in your heart”; v. 22) is also to listen to God’s mouthpiece: Eliphaz (cf. 4:15)!

Next, Eliphaz brings the logic of the retribution principle to bear. He gives two if-then exhortations. First, if Job repents of his sins (“if you return to the Almighty”), then God will renew Job’s status and fortunes (“you will be built up”; 22:23a). Good things happen to those who go to God! Second, if Job ousts from his life all of his ethical iniquities (“if you remove injustice far from your tents”; v. 23b; cf. vv. 6–9) and returns his ill-gotten gain and idolatrous wealth (“if you lay gold in the dust, and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent-bed”; v. 24),108 then his relationship with God will revive (“then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver” (v. 25).

In verses 26–28, Eliphaz expands on this second if-then exhortation, highlighting three aspects of that renewed relationship. First, Job will find the former happiness he has been craving:

Second, instead of silence, God will hear and answer Job’s prayers (“you will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you”), even helping Job to keep his word concerning following God’s ways (“and you will pay your vows”; v. 27). Third, rather than deep darkness blinding the way forward, Job will be given light to see which direction to go: “You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways” (v. 28).

Eliphaz concludes his plea to Job with a reminder of the pattern of God’s salvation of sinners (“he saves,” v. 29b; “he delivers,” v. 30a). Similar to what Peter would later write—“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5)—Eliphaz envisions Job as agreeing with the Almighty (Job 22:21) and in humility admitting his pride: “It is because of pride” (v. 29a). He then envisions God as saving this sinner who is now submissive (v. 29b). While Eliphaz will not speak of God’s grace, he does count on God’s generosity (“he delivers even the one who is not innocent”; v. 30a).

The meaning of the final phrase of this chapter is difficult to determine. If the word “your” represents God (which is unlikely, as God has been “he” throughout), then the sense is that the sinner is saved by means of God’s purity. However, if the “your” symbolizes the repentant sinner but now reestablished saint, then the sense is that this sinner-saint has become an instrument of God’s deliverance for others. Other sinners, in other words, will be “delivered through the cleanness of” this now restored-as-righteous man’s “hands” (v. 30b). If the second interpretive option is true, it serves as an ironic allusion to Job’s future deliverance of his friends (cf. 42:7–9).