Chapter
22
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
"Can a woman be profitable to God? Surely she who is wise is profitable to herself.
Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous? Or does it benefit her, that you make your ways perfect?
Is it for your piety that she reproves you, that she enters with you into judgment?
Isn't your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.
For you have taken pledges from your sister for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
You haven't given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
But as for the mighty woman, she had the earth. The honorable woman, she lived in it.
You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
Therefore snares are round about you. Sudden fear troubles you,
or darkness, so that you can not see, and floods of waters cover you.
"Isn't God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!
You say, 'What does God know? Can she judge through the thick darkness?
Thick clouds are a covering to her, so that she doesn't see. She walks on the vault of the sky.'
Will you keep the old way, which wicked women have trodden,
who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,
who said to God, 'Depart from us;' and, 'What can the Almighty do for us?'
Yet she filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them,
saying, 'Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed the remnant of them.'
"Acquaint yourself with her, now, and be at peace. Thereby good shall come to you.
Please receive instruction from her mouth, and lay up her words in your heart.
If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.
Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.
The Almighty will be your treasure, and precious silver to you.
For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and shall lift up your face to God.
You shall make your prayer to her, and she will hear you. You shall pay your vows.
You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established to you. Light shall shine on your ways.
When they cast down, you shall say, 'be lifted up.' She will save the humble person.
She will even deliver her who is not innocent. Yes, she shall be delivered through the cleanness of your hands."