Job 22

Tree of Life Version

² “Can a man be useful to God?
    Can even a wise man benefit Him?
³ What pleasure is it to Shaddai if you are righteous?
Or what gain if your ways are blameless?
⁴ Is it because of your reverence that He corrects you
    and He brings judgment against you?
⁵ Is not your wickedness great,
    and is there no end to your iniquity?
⁶ For you took pledges from your brothers for no reason;
    you stripped the naked of their clothing.
⁷ You gave the weary no water to drink
    and from the hungry you withhold bread,
⁸ Though you were a mighty man, owning land—
    an honored man living on it.
⁹ You sent widows away empty-handed
    and crushed the arms of orphans.

¹⁰ “That is why snares surround you,
    and why sudden fear terrifies you,
¹¹ or why it is so dark that you cannot see.
    and why a flood of water covers you.

¹² “Is not God in the heights of heaven?
    And see the lofty stars how high they are?
¹³ Yet you say, ‘What does God know?
    Does He judge through such thick darkness?
¹⁴ Thick clouds veil Him so He does not see,
    as He walks in 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 foundations washed away by a river.
¹⁷ They said to God, ‘Leave us alone!
    What can Shaddai 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 and rejoice;
    the innocent mock them, saying,
²⁰ ‘Surely our foes are cut off,
    and fire consumes their abundance.’

²¹ “Reconcile now with Him and have shalom—
    in this way prosperity will come to you.
²² Accept instruction from His mouth
    and store up His words in your heart.
²³ If you return to Shaddai, you will be restored;
if you remove iniquity far from your tent
²⁴ and throw your gold in the dust,
    and the gold of Ophir to the rocks in the wadis,
²⁵ then Shaddai will be your gold
    and your precious silver.
²⁶ Surely then Shaddai will be your delight
    and you will lift up your face to God.
²⁷ You will pray to Him and He will hear you,
    and you will fulfill your vows.
²⁸ What you decide will be done,
    and light will shine on your ways.
²⁹ When people are brought low, and you say, ‘Lift them up!’
    then He will save the downcast.
³⁰ He will deliver even one who is not innocent,
    who will be delivered by the cleanness of your hands.”