Job 22:1–30 Eliphaz's Finial Rebuke of Job

 ¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

²“Can a man be profitable to God,

Though he who is wise may be profitable to himself?

³Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous?

Or is it gain to Him that you make your ways blameless?

⁴“Is it because of your fear of Him that He corrects you,

And enters into judgment with you?

⁵Is not your wickedness great,

And your iniquity without end?

⁶For you have taken pledges from your brother for no reason,

And stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷You have not given the weary water to drink,

And you have withheld bread from the hungry.

⁸But the mighty man possessed the land,

And the honorable man dwelt in it.

⁹You have sent widows away empty,

And the strength of the fatherless was crushed.

¹⁰Therefore snares are all around you,

And sudden fear troubles you,

¹¹Or darkness so that you cannot see;

And an abundance of water covers you.

¹²“Is not God in the height of heaven?

And see the highest stars, how lofty they are!

¹³And you say, ‘What does God know?

Can He judge through the deep darkness?

¹⁴Thick clouds cover Him, so that He cannot see,

And He walks above the circle of heaven.’

¹⁵Will you keep to the old way

Which wicked men have trod,

¹⁶Who were cut down before their time,

Whose foundations were swept away by a flood?

¹⁷They said to God, ‘Depart from us!

What can the Almighty do to them?’

¹⁸Yet 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,

And the innocent laugh at them:

²⁰‘Surely our adversaries are cut down,

And the fire consumes their remnant.’

²¹“Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace;

Thereby good will come to you.

²²Receive, please, instruction from His mouth,

And lay up His words in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up;

You will remove iniquity far from your tents.

²⁴Then you will lay your gold in the dust,

And the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.

²⁵Yes, the Almighty will be your gold

And your precious silver;

²⁶For then you will have your delight in the Almighty,

And lift up your face to God.

²⁷You will make your prayer to Him,

He will hear you,

And you will pay your vows.

²⁸You will also declare a thing,

And it will be established for you;

So light will shine on your ways.

²⁹When they cast you down, and you say,

‘Exaltation will come!’

Then He will save the humble person.

³⁰He will even deliver one who is not innocent;

Yes, he will be delivered by the purity of your hands.”

Preamble This will be Eliphaz’s last rebuke of Job. Though he begins somewhat more subdued and polite, nonetheless he will soon return to his harsh condemnation of Job, by laying all sorts of false charges against Job; and this without any proof or evidence; but none of which of what he says is true.

Commentary

Vs. 1-3 ¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

²“Can a man be profitable to God,

Though he who is wise may be profitable to himself?

³Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous?

Or is it gain to Him that you make your ways blameless?

Eliphaz, now by why of a couple of sarcastically spoken questions (vs. 3-4), once again refuses to believe Job’s pleas that he is innocent. Eliphaz then is trying undermine Job by saying that God does not need any of us. Which obviously He doesn’t. Nonetheless Eliphaz is flat out wrong in denying that God has no pleasure in our being righteous, as if our being righteous or wicked doesn’t matter to God (consider Psalm 1:1-6). For God does indeed delight in those who live and do righteously, this is the Scriptures testimony throughout (Job 5:12; 11:7; 14:5; 33:5; 34:15-17, 19, 21; 37:17-18, 39; 45:7; 55:22; 58:11; 64:10; 72:7; 75:10; 92:12; 97:10-12; Psalm 112; 146:8; Prov. 10-13; 14:32; Isaiah 3:10-11; 26:2 etc.). Now as to one making their ways blameless not being any gain to Him? It certainly isn’t any harm to His Name or reputation when one does, which is something that Eliphaz is denying in his seeking to undermine Job and his defense of himself.

Vs. 4-11 ⁴“Is it because of your fear of Him that He corrects you,

And enters into judgment with you?

⁵Is not your wickedness great,

And your iniquity without end?

⁶For you have taken pledges from your brother for no reason,

And stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷You have not given the weary water to drink,

And you have withheld bread from the hungry.

⁸But the mighty man possessed the land,

And the honorable man dwelt in it.

⁹You have sent widows away empty,

And the strength of the fatherless was crushed.

¹⁰Therefore snares are all around you,

And sudden fear troubles you,

¹¹Or darkness so that you cannot see;

And an abundance of water covers you.

Eliphaz then in refusing to believe Job's claims of innocence now throws aside all restraint as he strongly denounces Job. By first asking him is it because he fears God, that God is correcting and judging him (vs. 4).  Eliphaz then goes into a tirade against Job by saying to Job that his wickedness is great and his iniquity is without end (vs. 5). He then lays a series of completely unfounded charges against Job, accusing Job being some sort of tyrannical person who robes and oppresses his brethren, who even takes pledges without cause, and strips the poor of their clothing (vs. 6). He continues charging Job with wickedness by being utterly indifferent to the cries of the poor in their time of need, and not giving water to the weary and bread to the hungry (vs. 7). Now verse eight is not a positive interjection by Eliphaz, just another false charge made by him, that Job as a mighty and honorable man had seized the land he did not own by force, and thus gained his great wealth and standing by evil and unjust means (vs. 8). Then in verse nine Eliphaz charges Job with turning away widow’s empty handed and driving fatherless away (vs. 9). These then are the reasons, says Eliphaz, that snares are all around Job, and sudden fear and terrors now overtake him, that darkness now seems his only hope, as the waters of despair are drowning him etc. Thus Eliphaz in his cruel and wrong judgment of Job has even seized upon those things that Job had so bitterly complained about as happening to him to even use as "evidence" against him. 

Vs. 12-20 ¹²“Is not God in the height of heaven?

And see the highest stars, how lofty they are!

¹³And you say, ‘What does God know?

Can He judge through the deep darkness?

¹⁴Thick clouds cover Him, so that He cannot see,

And He walks above the circle of heaven.’

¹⁵Will you keep to the old way

Which wicked men have trod,

¹⁶Who were cut down before their time,

Whose foundations were swept away by a flood?

¹⁷They said to God, ‘Depart from us!

What can the Almighty do to them?’

¹⁸Yet 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,

And the innocent laugh at them:

²⁰‘Surely our adversaries are cut down,

And the fire consumes their remnant.’

Eliphaz with complete indifference to Job now exalts God as being above everything, and thus He sees everything; now this he does to refute Job’s previous claim that God (whom Job knows is Just) is not seeing what is happening to him (vs. 12-14). And so Eliphaz is basically saying, no Job, God does see what is happening to you and you are only reaping what you have sown. Thus in assuming Job's guilt of heinous things, he then asks Job if he will keep to those ways which wicked men of old walked in, men who were cut down before their time, whose foundations were swept away by the flood (vs. 15-16). Eliphaz then references the flood that occurred in days of Noah, that destroyed both man and beast on earth because the world was filled with vileness and violence. For that generation rejected God and told Him to depart from them, for they denied that He had any hand in their lives, even though it was He who filled their houses with good things (vs.17-18). Eliphaz then is charging Job with committing that same very grave sin of rejecting God and only living by one’s own sinful and wicked desires, as the people were doing when Noah preached repentance to them. Eliphaz then returns to their previous battle where Eliphaz first accused Job of only “smiling on the counsel of the wicked” (Job 10:3), which Job clearly refuted in his denouncing the wicked (21:14-16), by which Eliphaz has now arrogantly seized upon to call Job’s counsels as being wicked, by saying that “the counsel of wicked is far from me.” Eliphaz then goes on to describe the righteous and innocent laughing at the plight of the wicked as God judges them (vs. 19-20), which though sounding like a generalized statement is really his saying this of Job in his plight.

Vs. 21-30 ²¹“Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace;

Thereby good will come to you.

²²Receive, please, instruction from His mouth,

And lay up His words in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up;

You will remove iniquity far from your tents.

²⁴Then you will lay your gold in the dust,

And the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.

²⁵Yes, the Almighty will be your gold

And your precious silver;

²⁶For then you will have your delight in the Almighty,

And lift up your face to God.

²⁷You will make your prayer to Him,

He will hear you,

And you will pay your vows.

²⁸You will also declare a thing,

And it will be established for you;

So light will shine on your ways.

²⁹When they cast you down, and you say,

‘Exaltation will come!’

Then He will save the humble person.

³⁰He will even deliver one who is not innocent;

Yes, he will be delivered by the purity of your hands.”

Having laid a his foundation for Job's guilt; verses 21-30 then are Eliphaz’s call to Job to repent. And like Bildad before him he too denies that Job even knows God, which is ironic since God Himself called Job his blameless servant.  And so, he now acting as the wise and understanding one now tells him that if he acquaints himself with God good things will come to him (vs. 21). And so, Eliphaz once again rejects any notion that righteous people suffer. Instead, he tells Job whose whole life was lived in the fear of the Lord, to now receive instruction from His mouth and lay up His Words within him (vs. 22). Great counsel, but in this context its just another slap in the face to Job, given Job’s righteous lifestyle and how this counsel is being delivered to him. Eliphaz goes on, promising Job that if he returns to God and removes iniquity from his tents (i.e. house, dwelling), then God will bless him with the gold of Ophir, and even keep it secure for him (vs. 23-24). Yes, say’s Eliphaz, because you will experience such things, God Himself will be your gold and silver (vs. 25). For then says Eliphaz the Almighty will be your delight, and you will pray to God and He will hear you, and you will keep your vows to Him (vs. 26-27, as if Job had been negligent in all of this). Even the words of your mouth says Eliphaz, will be established by God, and He will cause light to shine on all your ways (vs. 28). And even when they cast you down, you will not be defeated, for you will say, ‘Exaltation will come!’ Meaning you will be confident that God will save you, for God saves the humble person (vs. 29). Indeed, God will be so strongly in your corner that, “He will even deliver one who is not innocent; Yes, he will be delivered by the purity of your hands.” ^{vs. 30} Eliphaz then is building a lot of hope with his words, but sadly he has wrapped them all up in condemning Job first. As well Eliphaz once again makes it seem as if righteous person will never be in distress, or suffer the same sort of tragic things and wrongs that happen to all people. That being right with God automatically equates with Him then giving us riches and blessings, that ones love for God is bound up with getting blessings from Him, however our love for God comes from Him first loving us, by asking His Son Jesus Christ to suffer and die in our place on the Cross so that He could give us remission of all of our sins and bring us to life, everlasting life with Himself the moment we believe in Him! That is what makes me love God, and be very thankful and grateful to Him, both now and forever. For He has through His grace and By His Spirit given me a truck load of love, hope, joy and peace which no amount of money can buy! All which is just a foretaste of His fulfilling His Promise to me of a very beautiful eternity and future with Himself which He has already laid up for me, and you too, if you believe in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ for yourselves as well.

 Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.