Job 22:3-13

3 What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous? What would he gain if your ways were blameless?
4 “Is it for your piety that he rebukes you and brings charges against you?
5 Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless?
6 You demanded security from your relatives for no reason; you stripped people of their clothing, leaving them naked.
7 You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry,
8 though you were a powerful man, owning land— an honored man, living on it.
9 And you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless.
10 That is why snares are all around you, why sudden peril terrifies you,
11 why it is so dark you cannot see, and why a flood of water covers you.
12 “Is not God in the heights of heaven? And see how lofty are the highest stars!
13 Yet you say, ‘What does God know? Does he judge through such darkness?

Job 22:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 22

This chapter contains the third and last reply of Eliphaz to Job, in which he charges him with having too high an opinion of himself, of his holiness and righteousness, as if God was profited by it, and laid thereby under obligation to him, whereas he was not, Job 22:1-3; and as if he reproved and chastised him, because of his fear of him, whereas it was because of his sins, Job 22:4,5; an enumeration of which he gives, as of injustice, oppression, cruelty to the poor, and even of atheism and infidelity, for which snares and fears were around him, and various calamities, Job 22:6-14; and compares his way and course of life to that of the men of the old world, and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, and suggests that his end would be like theirs, unless he repented, Job 22:15-20; and then concludes with an exhortation to him to return to God by repentance, and to reform, when he should see happy times again, and enjoy much outward and inward prosperity, and be an instrument of doing much good to many, Job 22:21-30.

Cross References 25

  • 1. Isaiah 1:11; Haggai 1:8
  • 2. Psalms 143:2
  • 3. Job 35:7; Proverbs 9:12
  • 4. S Job 9:3; Job 14:3; Job 19:29; Psalms 143:2; Isaiah 3:14; Ezekiel 20:35
  • 5. S Ezra 9:13; S Job 15:5">Job Job 15:5; Job 11:6; Job 15:5
  • 6. S Job 15:13; S Job 20:29; Job 29:17
  • 7. S Exodus 22:26; Deuteronomy 24:6,17; Ezekiel 18:12,16
  • 8. S 2 Kings 4:1
  • 9. S Exodus 22:27; Deuteronomy 24:12-13
  • 10. Matthew 10:42
  • 11. ver 9; Job 29:12; Job 31:17,21,31; Isaiah 58:7,10; Ezekiel 18:7; Matthew 25:42
  • 12. S Job 15:19
  • 13. Isaiah 3:3; Isaiah 5:13; Isaiah 9:15
  • 14. S Job 12:19
  • 15. Job 29:13; Job 31:16; Psalms 146:9
  • 16. Job 24:3,21; Isaiah 10:2; Luke 1:53
  • 17. S ver 7; S Job 6:27; S Isaiah 1:17
  • 18. S Job 18:9
  • 19. S Job 10:3
  • 20. S Job 15:21
  • 21. S Job 5:14
  • 22. S Genesis 7:23; Job 36:28; Job 38:34,37; Psalms 69:1-2; Psalms 124:4-5; Isaiah 58:10-11; Lamentations 3:54
  • 23. S Job 11:8; S Job 16:19
  • 24. ver 14; Psalms 10:11; Psalms 59:7; Psalms 64:5; Psalms 73:11; Psalms 94:7; Isaiah 29:15; Ezekiel 9:9; Zephaniah 1:12
  • 25. Psalms 139:11; Ezekiel 8:12; Ephesians 6:12
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