Previous Chapter Full Page Full Page Next Chapter

Job 22 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

Eliphaz’s Third Response to Job
Job 22:1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
Job 22:2“Can a person do anything to help God?
Can even a wise person be helpful to him?
Job 22:3Is it any advantage to the Almighty if you are righteous?
Would it be any gain to him if you were perfect?
Job 22:4Is it because you’re so pious that he accuses you
and brings judgment against you?
Job 22:5No, it’s because of your wickedness!
There’s no limit to your sins.
Job 22:6“For example, you must have lent money to your friend
and demanded clothing as security.
Yes, you stripped him to the bone.
Job 22:7You must have refused water for the thirsty
and food for the hungry.
Job 22:8You probably think the land belongs to the powerful
and only the privileged have a right to it!
Job 22:9You must have sent widows away empty-handed
and crushed the hopes of orphans.
Job 22:10That is why you are surrounded by traps
and tremble from sudden fears.
Job 22:11That is why you cannot see in the darkness,
and waves of water cover you.
Job 22:12“God is so great—higher than the heavens,
higher than the farthest stars.
Job 22:13But you reply, ‘That’s why God can’t see what I am doing!
How can he judge through the thick darkness?
Job 22:14For thick clouds swirl about him, and he cannot see us.
He is way up there, walking on the vault of heaven.’
Job 22:15“Will you continue on the old paths
where evil people have walked?
Job 22:16They were snatched away in the prime of life,
the foundations of their lives washed away.
Job 22:17For they said to God, ‘Leave us alone!
What can the Almighty do to us?’
Job 22:18Yet he was the one who filled their homes with good things,
so I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.
Job 22:19“The righteous will be happy to see the wicked destroyed,
and the innocent will laugh in contempt.
Job 22:20They will say, ‘See how our enemies have been destroyed.
The last of them have been consumed in the fire.’
Job 22:21“Submit to God, and you will have peace;
then things will go well for you.
Job 22:22Listen to his instructions,
and store them in your heart.
Job 22:23If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored—
so clean up your life.
Job 22:24If you give up your lust for money
and throw your precious gold into the river,
Job 22:25the Almighty himself will be your treasure.
He will be your precious silver!
Job 22:26“Then you will take delight in the Almighty
and look up to God.
Job 22:27You will pray to him, and he will hear you,
and you will fulfill your vows to him.
Job 22:28You will succeed in whatever you choose to do,
and light will shine on the road ahead of you.
Job 22:29If people are in trouble and you say, ‘Help them,’
God will save them.
Job 22:30Even sinners will be rescued;
they will be rescued because your hands are pure.”
Translation Copyright Logo

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.