Job

Job 22

30 verses · Wisdom · Old Testament

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

2“Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself. 3Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him that you make your ways perfect? 4Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment? 5Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities. 6For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing. 7You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. 8But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it. 9You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken. 10Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you, 11or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.
12“Isn’t God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are! 13You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness? 14Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see. He walks on the vault of the sky.’ 15Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden, 16who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream, 17who said to God, ‘Depart from us;’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’ 18Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me. 19The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them, 20saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed their remnant.’
21“Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace. By it, good will come to you. 22Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart. 23If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents. 24Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks. 25The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you. 26For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and will lift up your face to God. 27You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You will pay your vows. 28You will also decree a thing, and it will be established to you. Light will shine on your ways. 29When they cast down, you will say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person. 30He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

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What others are saying

4 commentators · 71 notes on this chapter

Matthew HenryEnglish Puritan / Nonconformist · 1708–17144

Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.

Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.

v. 1–4

Eliphaz here insinuates that, because Job complained so much of his afflictions, he thought God was unjust in afflicting him; but it was a strained innuendo. Job was far from thinking so. What Eliphaz says here is therefore unjustly applied to Job, but in…

v. 5–14

Eliphaz and his companions had condemned Job, in general, as a wicked man and a hypocrite; but none of them had descended to particulars, nor drawn up any articles of impeachment against him, until Eliphaz did so here, where he positively and expressly…

v. 15–20

Eliphaz, having endeavoured to convict Job, by setting his sins (as he thought) in order before him, here endeavours to awaken him to a sight and sense of his misery and danger by reason of sin; and this he does by comparing his case with that of the sinners…

John GillParticular Baptist / High Calvinist · 1746–176330

The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.

Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.

v. 1

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said. As Eliphaz was the first that entered the discussion with Job, being perhaps the oldest man, and might be reckoned the wisest, so he gives the lead in every course of disputation; and here, instead of replying to…

v. 2

Can a man be profitable unto God?.... Eliphaz imagined that Job thought so, by his insisting so much on his integrity, and complaining of his afflictions; and that God was beholden to him for his holiness and righteousness, and that instead of afflicting him…

v. 3

Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous?.... It is not; the Lord indeed takes pleasure in his people, not as sinners, but as righteous; and as they are considered such in Christ, he is well pleased for his righteousness' sake, and with it…

Keil & DelitzschGerman Lutheran, conservative-critical · 1861–18758

The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.

Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.

v. 1–5

1 Then began Eliphaz the Temanite, and said: 2 Is a man profitable unto God? No, indeed! the intelligent man is profitable to himself. 3 Hath the Almighty any profit if thou art righteous, Or gain if thou strivest to walk uprightly? 4 Will He reprove thee for…

v. 6–9

6 For thou distrainedst thy brother without cause, And the clothes of the naked thou strippedst off. 7 Thou gavest no water to the languishing, And thou refusedst bread to the hungry. 8 And the man of the arm-the land was his, And the honourable man dwelt…

v. 10–11

10 Therefore snares are round about thee, And fear terrifieth thee suddenly; 11 Or percievest thou not the darkness, And the overflow of waters, which covereth thee? On account of this inhuman mode of action by which he has challenged the punishment of…

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownScottish Presbyterian / Reformed · 187129

The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.

Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.

v. 2

as he that is wise--rather, yea the pious man profiteth himself. So "understanding" or "wise"--pious (Dan 12:3, Dan 12:10; Psa 14:2) [MICHAELIS].

v. 3

pleasure--accession of happiness; God has pleasure in man's righteousness (Psa 45:7), but He is not dependent on man's character for His happiness.

v. 4

Is the punishment inflicted on thee from fear of thee, in order to disarm thee? as Job had implied (see on Job 7:12; Job 7:20; and Job 10:17). will he enter . . . into judgment?-- Job had desired this (Job 13:3, Job 13:21). He ought rather to have spoken as…

World English Bible — Public domain