[22:1] Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
[22:2] “Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
[22:3] Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?
[22:4] Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you?
[22:5] Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities.
[22:6] For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing.
[22:7] You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
[22:8] The man with power possessed the land, and the favored man lived in it.
[22:9] You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.
[22:10] Therefore snares are all around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you,
[22:11] or darkness, so that you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.
[22:12] “Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are!
[22:13] But you say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness?
[22:14] Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see, and he walks on the vault of heaven.’
[22:15] Will you keep to the old way that wicked men have trod?
[22:16] They were snatched away before their time; their foundation was washed away.
[22:17] They said to God, ‘Depart from us,’ and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’
[22:18] Yet he filled their houses with good things— but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
[22:19] The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent one mocks at them,
[22:20] saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off, and what they left the fire has consumed.’
[22:21] “Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.
[22:22] Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.
[22:23] If you return to the Almighty you will be built up; if you remove injustice far from your tents,
[22:24] if you lay gold in the dust, and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent-bed,
[22:25] then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver.
[22:26] For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.
[22:27] You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you, and you will pay your vows.
[22:28] You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways.
[22:29] For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’; but he saves the lowly.
[22:30] He delivers even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”