Job 22:3-13

3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect?
4 Is it for your piety that he reproves you, That he enters with you into judgment?
5 Isn't your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.
6 For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, And stripped the naked of their clothing.
7 You haven't given water to the weary to drink, And you have withheld bread from the hungry.
8 But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it.
9 You have sent widows away empty, And the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
10 Therefore snares are round about you. Sudden fear troubles you,
11 Or 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!
13 You say, 'What does God know? Can he judge through the thick 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.

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