Job

22 Then responded Eliphaz the Temanite and said:—

2 Unto God can a man act as friend? Surely a discreet man befriendeth himself!

3 Is it a pleasure to the Almighty that thou shouldst be righteous? Or any profit that thou shouldst be blameless in thy ways?

4 Is it for thy reverence that he will accuse thee? will enter with thee into judgment?

5 Is not thy wickedness great? And without end [are not] thine iniquities?

6 Surely thou hast been wont to put thy brother in pledge for nothing, And the garments of the ill-clad hast thou stripped off:

7 No water—to the weary hast thou given to drink, And from the hungry thou hast withheld bread:

8 A man of might to him pertaineth the land, And the favourite dwelleth therein:

9 Widows thou hast sent away empty, And the arms of the fatherless thou dost crush.

10 For this cause round about thee are snares, And a dread startleth thee suddenly;

11 Or darkness—thou canst not see, And a flood of waters covereth thee.

12 Is not God [in] the height of the heavens? Behold then the head of the stars that they are high.

13 Wilt thou say then, What doth God know? Out through a thick cloud can he judge?

14 Dark clouds are a veil to him and he cannot see, Or the vault of the heavens doth he walk?

15 The path of the ancient time wilt thou mark, Which the men of iniquity trod?

16 Who were snatched away before the time, And a stream washed away their foundation?

17 Who had been saying unto God, Depart from us! and—What can the Almighty do for himself?

18 Yet he had filled their houses with good! The counsel of the lawless then is far from me:

19 The righteous shall see and rejoice, And the innocent shall laugh them to scorn:

20 If our assailants do not vanish Then their abundance a fire consumeth!

21 Shew thyself to be one with him—I pray thee—and prosper, Thereby shall there come on thee blessing.

22 Accept, I beseech thee, from his mouth—instruction,—And lay up his sayings in thy heart.

23 If thou return unto the Almighty and submit thyself, If thou far remove perversity from thy tent

24 Then lay up in the dust precious ore, And among the stones of the torrent-beds fine gold:

25 So shall the Almighty become thy precious ores Yea glittering silver unto thee!

26 For then in the Almighty shalt thou take exquisite delight, And shalt lift up—unto God—thy face;

27 Thou shalt make entreaty unto him and he will hear thee, And thy vows shalt thou pay;

28 And thou shalt decree a purpose and it shall be fulfilled unto thee, And upon thy ways shall have shone a light;

29 When men cast themselves down then thou shalt say Up! And him that is of downcast eyes shall he save;

30 He shall deliver the innocent, And thou shalt escape by the pureness of thy hands.