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Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 “Can a man be of any benefit to God?
Can even a wise man be useful to Him?
3 What pleasure does the Almighty receive if you are righteous?
Is there any profit for Him if your ways are blameless?
4 “Is it because of your piety that He reproves you,
that He enters into judgment with you?
5 Is not your wickedness great?
Are not your iniquities without end?
6 You have exacted pledges from your brothers without cause,
and stripped the naked of their clothing.
7 You have not given water to the weary to drink,
and withheld food from the hungry.
8 The powerful man possesses the land,
and the honourable man lives on it.
9 You have sent widows away empty-handed,
and the strength of the fatherless was broken.
10 That is why these snares are all around you,
and sudden peril terrifies you,
11 and darkness so you cannot see,
and a flood of waters to cover you.
12 “Is not God in the heights of the heavens?
Look at the highest stars, how lofty they are!
13 Yet you say, ‘What does God know?
Can He judge through the thick darkness?
14 Thick clouds shroud Him, so He does not see,
and He walks on the circuit of the heavens’.
15 Will you keep to the ancient path
that wicked men have trod,
16 who were carried away before their time,
and their foundations were washed away by a flood?
17 They said to God, ‘Leave us alone!
What can the Almighty do to us?’
18 Yet He filled their houses with good things.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
19 The righteous see it and rejoice;
and the innocent laugh them to scorn,
20 saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are destroyed,
and the fire consumes what they have left behind’.
21 “Surrender to God and be at peace with Him;
in this way good will come to you.
22 Receive instruction from His mouth,
and lay up His words in your heart.
23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored.
If you put iniquity far from your tent,
24 if you dispatch your gold to the dust,
and the gold of Ophir to the stones of the brooks,
25 then the Almighty will be your gold,
and your precious silver.
26 Then you will delight in the Almighty,
and lift up your face to God.
27 You will make your prayer to Him, and He will hear you,
and you will fulfil your vows.
28 You will make a decision, and it will be done for you,
and light will shine on your ways.
29 When men are cast down and you say, ‘Lift them up’,
God will save the humble person.
30 He will even deliver one who is not innocent,
who will be rescued through the cleannness of your hands.”