answers there remains only falsehood?" 022:001 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, 022:002 "Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself. 022:003 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect? 022:004 Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment? 022:005 Isn't your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities. 022:006 For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing. 022:007 You haven't given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. 022:008 But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it. 022:009 You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken. 022:010 Therefore snares are round about you. Sudden fear troubles you, 022:011 or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you. 022:012 "Isn't God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are! 022:013 You say, 'What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness? 022:014 Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn't see. He walks on the vault of the sky.' 022:015 Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden, 022:016 who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream, 022:017 who said to God, 'Depart from us;' and, 'What can the Almighty do for us?' 022:018 Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me. 022:019 The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them, 022:020 saying, 'Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed the remnant of them.' 022:021 "Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace. Thereby good shall come to you. 022:022 Please receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart. 022:023 If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents. 022:024 Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks. 022:025 The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you. 022:026 For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and shall lift up your face to God. 022:027 You shall make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You shall pay your vows. 022:028 You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established to you. Light shall shine on your ways. 022:029 When they cast down, you shall say, 'be lifted up.' He will save the humble person. 022:030 He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he shall be delivered through the cleanness of your hands." 023:001 Then Job answered,