Job 22:7-17

7 You must have refused water for the thirsty and food for the hungry.
8 You probably think the land belongs to the powerful and only the privileged have a right to it!
9 You must have sent widows away empty-handed and crushed the hopes of orphans.
10 That is why you are surrounded by traps and tremble from sudden fears.
11 That is why you cannot see in the darkness, and waves of water cover you.
12 “God is so great—higher than the heavens, higher than the farthest stars.
13 But you reply, ‘That’s why God can’t see what I am doing! How can he judge through the thick darkness?
14 For thick clouds swirl about him, and he cannot see us. He is way up there, walking on the vault of heaven.’
15 “Will you continue on the old paths where evil people have walked?
16 They were snatched away in the prime of life, the foundations of their lives washed away.
17 For they said to God, ‘Leave us alone! What can the Almighty do to us?’

Job 22:7-17 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.

Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.