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Eliphaz Exhorts Job

¹ Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:² “Can a man be of use to God? Can even a wise man benefit Him?³ Does it delight the Almighty that you are righteous? Does He profit if your ways are blameless?⁴ Is it for your reverence that He rebukes you and enters into judgment against you?

⁵ Is not your wickedness great? Are not your iniquities endless?⁶ For you needlessly demanded security from your brothers, stripping off their clothes and leaving them naked.⁷ You gave no water to the weary, and you withheld food from the famished,⁸ while the land belonged to a mighty man, and a man of honor lived on it.⁹ You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.¹⁰ Therefore snares surround you, and sudden peril terrifies you;¹¹ it is so dark you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.¹² Is not God as high as the heavens? Look at the highest stars, how lofty they are!¹³ Yet you say: ‘What does God know? Does He judge through thick darkness?¹⁴ Clouds veil Him so that He cannot see, as He traverses heaven's horizon.’

¹⁵ Will you stay on the ancient path that wicked men have trod?¹⁶ They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were swept away by a river.¹⁷ They said to God, ‘Depart from us. What can the Almighty do to us?’¹⁸ But it was He who filled their houses with good things; so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.¹⁹ The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent mock them, saying,²⁰ ‘Surely our foes are destroyed, and fire has consumed their excess.’

²¹ Reconcile now and be at peace with Him; thereby good will come to you.²² Receive instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart.²³ If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored. If you remove injustice from your tents²⁴ and consign your gold to the dust and the gold of Ophir to the stones of the ravines,²⁵ then the Almighty will be your gold and the finest silver for you.²⁶ Surely then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.²⁷ You will pray to Him, and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.²⁸ Your decisions will be carried out, and light will shine on your ways.²⁹ When men are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up,’ then He will save the lowly.³⁰ He will deliver even one who is not innocent and rescue him through the cleanness of your hands.”