Job 22:12-22

12 Isn't God as high as the heavens? And look at the highest stars-how lofty they are!^[a]

13 Yet you say: "What does God know? Can He judge through thick darkness?^[b]

14 Clouds veil Him^[c] so that He cannot see, as He walks on the circle of the sky."

15 Will you continue on the ancient path that wicked men have walked?

16 They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were washed away by a river.

17 They were the ones who said to God, "Leave us alone!" and "What can the Almighty do to us?"^[d][e]

18 But it was He who filled their houses with good things. The counsel of the wicked is far from me!^[f]

19 The righteous see [this] and rejoice; the innocent mock them, [saying],^[g]

20 "Surely our opponents are destroyed, and fire has consumed what they left behind."

21 Come to terms with God and be at peace;^[h] in this way^[i] good will come to you.

22 Receive instruction from His mouth, and place His sayings in your heart.^[j]

Job 22:12-22 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.

Footnotes

• [a] Jb 11:7-8; Isa 14:13
• [b] Ps 73:11; 97:2; Isa 29:15
• [c] 2 Sm 22:12; Ps 18:11
• [d] LXX, Syr; MT reads him
• [e] Jb 21:14-15
• [f] Jb 21:16
• [g] Ps 52:6; 58:10; Pr 1:26-27
• [h] Isa 1:18; Rm 5:1; 2 Co 5:18,20
• [i] Lit peace; by them
• [j] Jb 23:12; Dt 8:3; 32:46