Job 22

Eliphaz’s Third Response to Job

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2“Can a person do anything to help God?

Can even a wise person be helpful to him?

15“Will you continue on the old paths

where evil people have walked?

16They were snatched away in the prime of life,

the foundations of their lives washed away.

17For they said to God, ‘Leave us alone!

What can the Almighty do to us?’

18Yet he was the one who filled their homes with good things,

so I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.

19“The righteous will be happy to see the wicked destroyed,

and the innocent will laugh in contempt.

20They will say, ‘See how our enemies have been destroyed.

The last of them have been consumed in the fire.’

21“Submit to God, and you will have peace;

then things will go well for you.

22Listen to his instructions,

and store them in your heart.

23If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored—

so clean up your life.

24If you give up your lust for money

and throw your precious gold into the river,

25the Almighty himself will be your treasure.

He will be your precious silver!

26“Then you will take delight in the Almighty

and look up to God.

27You will pray to him, and he will hear you,

and you will fulfill your vows to him.

28You will succeed in whatever you choose to do,

and light will shine on the road ahead of you.

29If people are in trouble and you say, ‘Help them,’

God will save them.

30Even sinners will be rescued;

they will be rescued because your hands are pure.”