Parallel Bible results for "job 22"

Job 22

The Message Bible MSG

1 Once again Eliphaz the Temanite took up his theme:

2 "Are any of us strong enough to give God a hand, or smart enough to give him advice?

3 So what if you were righteous - would God Almighty even notice? Even if you gave a perfect performance, do you think he'd applaud?

4 Do you think it's because he cares about your purity that he's disciplining you, putting you on the spot?

5 Hardly! It's because you're a first-class moral failure, because there's no end to your sins.

6 When people came to you for help, you took the shirts off their backs, exploited their helplessness.

7 You wouldn't so much as give a drink to the thirsty, or food, not even a scrap, to the hungry.

8 And there you sat, strong and honored by everyone, surrounded by immense wealth!

9 You turned poor widows away from your door; heartless, you crushed orphans.

10 Now you're the one trapped in terror, paralyzed by fear. Suddenly the tables have turned!

11 How do you like living in the dark, sightless, up to your neck in flood waters?

12 "You agree, don't you, that God is in charge? He runs the universe - just look at the stars!

13 Yet you dare raise questions: 'What does God know? From that distance and darkness, how can he judge?

14 He roams the heavens wrapped in clouds, so how can he see us?'

15 "Are you going to persist in that tired old line that wicked men and women have always used?

16 Where did it get them? They died young, flash floods sweeping them off to their doom.

17 They told God, 'Get lost! What good is God Almighty to us?'

18 And yet it was God who gave them everything they had. It's beyond me how they can carry on like this!

19 "Good people see bad people crash, and call for a celebration. Relieved, they crow,

20 'At last! Our enemies - wiped out. Everything they had and stood for is up in smoke!'

21 "Give in to God, come to terms with him and everything will turn out just fine.

22 Let him tell you what to do; take his words to heart.

23 Come back to God Almighty and he'll rebuild your life. Clean house of everything evil.

24 Relax your grip on your money and abandon your gold-plated luxury.

25 God Almighty will be your treasure, more wealth than you can imagine.

26 "You'll take delight in God, the Mighty One, and look to him joyfully, boldly.

27 You'll pray to him and he'll listen; he'll help you do what you've promised.

28 You'll decide what you want and it will happen; your life will be bathed in light.

29 To those who feel low you'll say, 'Chin up! Be brave!' and God will save them.

30 Yes, even the guilty will escape, escape through God's grace in your life."

English Standard Version ESV

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

2 “Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

15 Will you keep to the old way that wicked men have trod?

16 They were snatched away before their time; their foundation was washed away.

17 They said to God, ‘Depart from us, ’and ‘What can the Almighty do to us? ’

18 Yet he filled their houses with good things—but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

19 The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent one mocks at them,

20 saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off, and what they left the fire has consumed. ’

21 “Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.

22 Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.

23 If you return to the Almighty you will be built up; if you remove injustice far from your tents,

24 if you lay gold in the dust, and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent-bed,

25 then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver.

26 For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.

27 You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you, and you will pay your vows.

28 You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways.

29 For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’; but he saves the lowly.

30 He delivers even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands. ”