Chapter Twenty-Two

Eliphaz’s speech in the third dialogue. 1–5. Divine Justice as the basis for concluding Job’s sinfulness. 6–20. Two types of sins of Job. 21–30. Advice to reconcile with God and the consequences thereof.

Job 22:1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: Job 22:2. Can a man be of benefit to God? Or can the wise be of benefit to Himself? Job 22:3. Is it a pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Is it profitable to Him that your ways are perfect? Job 22:4. Is it because of your fear that He contends with you and enters judgment with you? Ignoring Job’s last speech, and not refuting the facts he points out, Eliphaz insists on the fact that his misfortunes are deserved, deducing this thought from the position of Divine Justice. In his relations with the righteous and the wicked, God is guided exclusively by the principles of strict justice. Absolutely perfect, He does not gain profit from the deeds of the “wise,”—“one who seeks God” (Heb. maskil; cf. Ps 13:2); similarly, the deeds of a sinner do not bring Him harm. Therefore, His attitude toward them and the others is not determined, as in a man, by the desire to gain profit for Himself and avoid harm. God punishes the sinner not because, fearing him, He seeks to protect Himself from a danger threatening from the sinner (v. 4; cf. Wis 6:7), and He rewards the righteous not under the influence of the desire to encourage him to greater virtue and thereby gain profit for Himself.

Job 22:5. Is not your wickedness great, and your iniquities without end? Given the absolute justice of God, one can find no other reason for Job’s terrible sufferings except great sinfulness.

Job 22:6. For you took pledges from your kinsmen without cause, and stripped the naked of their clothes. The supposed (“surely”) sins of Job consist in the absence of humanity, humaneness that is suggested by nature itself. He did not hesitate to take pledges (cf. Exod 22:26-27; Deut 24:10-13) from his “kinsmen,” that is, from people of his own tribe, and moreover “without cause,” that is, not needing them, as he himself was wealthy. He was motivated in those cases by nothing but greed (cf. Job 20:19-21), reaching the point that the last garment was taken as a pledge from the half-naked—those who possessed nothing.

Job 22:7. You did not give water to the weary to drink, and withheld bread from the hungry; An inhabitant of the desert who valued water, he was so greedy that he refused a drink of water to one dying of thirst and a piece of bread to the hungry (cf. Isa 58:10).

Job 22:8. The man with might—you gave him the land, and the eminent man dwelt on it. The Synodal reading does not quite accurately convey the Hebrew text. The literal translation of it, which is retained by Aquila and Symmachus, is as follows: “the man of hand—to him was the land, and the one high in position was settled on it.” The “man of hand,” that is, of strength (Job 40:9; Ps 76:16) and violence (Job 35:9), Job seized the land, expanded his possessions through forcible seizure (cf. Isa 5:8), not allowing the weak to settle on it.

Job 22:9. You sent widows away empty-handed, and the arms of the fatherless were broken. Among such persons were widows and orphans: their petitions and cries were left by Job unsatisfied.

Job 22:10. Therefore snares are all around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you, Job 22:11. or darkness in which you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you. The magnitude and strength of sin corresponds to the force of the misfortunes that have overtaken Job. He is “surrounded by snares”—struck by illness, sorrows, disgrace (Job 18:8-10); he does not see a way to escape from them (“darkness in which you cannot see,” cf. Job 17:12); he is close to destruction: “a flood of water covers you” (cf. Ps 41:8). Job 22:12-14. Sins against neighbors unite in Job with sins against God—denial of His omniscience and intervention in the life of people—His providence.

Job 22:12. Is not God high above the heavens? See how high the stars are! The dwelling of God is higher than the starry heavens, and from such a height God sees all the earth; before Him stretches its immeasurable expanse, incomprehensible to the human eye; God is all-knowing (cf. Ps 13:2).

Job 22:13. Yet you say: What does God know? Can He judge through the deep darkness? Job 22:14. Clouds are a veil to Him, so that He does not see, while He walks on the vault of heaven. Meanwhile, in Job’s opinion, God, hidden from the earth by clouds (“clouds are a veil to Him”; cf. Lam 3:44: “You covered Yourself with a cloud, that prayer might not reach you”), possesses knowledge only of what happens in the sphere of the heavens, and, not seeing what occurs on earth, does not manifest His judgment over men (v. 13; cf. Ps 72:11; Isa 29:15; Ezek 8:12).

Job 22:15. Do you hold to the ancient path which the wicked have trodden? Job 22:16. Who were cut off before their time, whose foundation was swept away by a flood? Job 22:17. They said to God: Depart from us! And what can the Almighty do to them? By such reasoning Job is compared to the ancient sinful (ἀρχαῖος κόσμος—2 Pet 2:5) antediluvian humanity (“their foundation was swept away by a flood”), representatives of which, just as he, rejected God (“Depart from us”), denied His intervention in their life for their benefit (v. 17) and for this reason perished prematurely, according to human reasoning (v. 18).

Job 22:18. Yet He filled their houses with good. But let the counsel of the wicked be far from me! Job 22:19. The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent mock at them: Job 22:20. Surely our adversaries are cut off, and the fire has consumed what remained of them. This dark ingratitude of these blasphemers stirs up a feeling of deep disgust in Eliphaz, and the destruction of sinners, at once enemies of God and of the pious (“our adversaries,” cf. Ps 138:20-22; Rom 11:28), filled the hearts of the latter with joy (v. 19). They saw in it a manifestation of Divine Justice (cf. Ps 57:11-12; Ps 63:10-11).

Job 22:21. Reconcile yourself to Him, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you. The destruction of antediluvian humanity should serve as a warning to Job. If he wishes to avoid it, he is obliged to “reconcile himself” with God—to abandon his hostile feeling toward Him (Heb. sakan—to be in friendship, in intimate relations with someone—Ps 138:3). As a result, Job’s soul will cease to be tormented: “be at peace,” and he will receive a reward.

Job 22:22. Receive the law from His mouth and lay up His words in your heart. Presenting his advice as if it were the advice of God Himself, Eliphaz proposes that Job receive it as an inviolable truth (“receive the law from His mouth,” cf. Prov 2:6) and penetrate it wholly, to the depths of his soul: “lay up His words in your heart.”

Job 22:23. If you return to the Almighty, you will be established; if you put away iniquity far from your tent, Job 22:24. and lay dust for your treasure, and gold of Ophir among the rocks of the valleys, The fate of such a man is blessedness (Ps 93:12-13). So too, Job, on condition of fulfilling the given advice—“putting away iniquity from his tent,” will not only have his former happiness restored (“be established”; Heb. bana in the sense of bestowing former happiness—Jer 24:6, granting greater happiness—Mal 3:15), but will receive more than he had. Job will become so rich that polished metal (unrefined gold and silver) will be of no more value to him than dust, and the finest Ophir gold will be like a common stone.

Job 22:25. Then the Almighty himself will be your gold and your silver for precious things. Do not value earthly riches; Job will consider his greatest, most precious treasure the One who gave them to him, that is, God. He will be “refined silver”—silver purified of all impurity.

Job 22:26. Surely then you will delight in the Almighty and raise your face to God. As the greatest good, God will become for Job a source of spiritual joy and comfort (cf. Ps 36:4; Isa 58:14). The latter will manifest themselves in the fact that he, forgiven and rewarded by God, will lose the tormenting feeling of being rejected by God. Forgiven by God, he will boldly and trustingly raise his face to Him (cf. Gen 4:6).

Job 22:27. You will make your prayer to Him, and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. The prayer of Job that flows from trusting love will be heard by the Lord, and the vows, fruit of zeal rather than compulsion, will be fulfilled.

Job 22:29. When they are brought low, you will say: “Lift them up!” and the one with downcast eyes He will save. Job 22:30. He will rescue even the one who is not innocent; he will be delivered by the cleanness of your hands. Job will be so firm in his piety that the misfortunes of the innocent will not shake his righteousness (Ps 72:2-3). At the sight of them, on the basis of personal experience, he will say that they—are not a manifestation of Divine injustice, but lead the sufferer to exaltation and establishment in goodness: “you will say: Lift them up!” By such reasoning he will encourage the suffering themselves, not allow them to fall into the sin of despair, unbelief; they will be saved, thanks to him: “he will be delivered by the cleanness of your hands” (v. 30).