Job 22:4-14

4 Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and ¹enters into judgment with you?

5 Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities.

6 For you have ²exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing ³and stripped the naked of their clothing.

7 You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have ⁴withheld bread from the hungry.

8 ⁵The man with power possessed the land, and ⁶the favored man lived in it.

9 You have ⁷sent widows away empty, and ⁸the arms of ⁹the fatherless were crushed.

10 Therefore ¹⁰snares are all around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you,

11 or ¹¹darkness, so that you cannot see, and a ¹²flood of ¹³water covers you.

12 "Is not God high in the heavens? See ¹⁴the highest stars, how lofty they are!

13 But you say, ¹⁵'What does God know? Can he judge through ¹⁶the deep darkness?

14 ¹⁷Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see, and he walks on the vault of heaven.'

Job 22:4-14 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

• 1. Job 14:3; [Psalms 143:2]
• 2. Job 24:3, 9; Exodus 22:26; Deuteronomy 24:6, 17; Ezekiel 18:12, 16
• 3. [Job 31:16]
• 4. [Job 31:17; Isaiah 58:7; Ezekiel 18:7, 16; Matthew 25:42]
• 5. [Job 35:9]
• 6. 2 Kings 5:1; Isaiah 9:15
• 7. [Luke 1:53]
• 8. [Job 38:15]
• 9. Job 31:21; Isaiah 10:2; Ezekiel 22:7
• 10. Job 18:8-10
• 11. [Exodus 10:22, 23]
• 12. Job 38:34
• 13. [Job 27:20; Ps. 69:1, 2, 14, 15; Psalms 124:5; Lamentations 3:54; Jonah 2:3, 5]
• 14. [Job 11:8]
• 15. Psalms 73:11; [Psalms 10:11; Psalms 59:7; Psalms 64:5; Psalms 94:7; Isaiah 29:15; Ezekiel 8:12; Ezekiel 9:9]
• 16. Job 38:9
• 17. [Psalms 139:11, 12]; [Proverbs 8:27; Isaiah 40:22]