God's New Bible

The Book of Job

Unlocked Dynamic Bible 2018

- Chapter 22 -

Eliphaz accuses Job of wickedness

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Then Eliphaz replied, saying this:
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“No one can be useful to God! People who are wise can be useful to themselves, but not to God.
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If you were righteous, that would not please God Almighty, would it? If you lived a perfect life, that would not help him, would it?
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Do you honor God, and is that why he punishes you? Is that the reason that he puts you on trial?
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No, it certainly must be because you are extremely wicked. It must be that no one can count the evil things that you have done!
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You must have lent money to others and wrongly forced them to give you things to guarantee that they would pay that money back to you; you must have taken all their clothes and left them with nothing to wear.
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You must not have given water to those who were thirsty, and you must have refused to give food to those who were hungry.
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Because you were very powerful, you must have taken over all the people’s land, and then you began to live on that land, even though others honored you very much.
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When widows came to you for help, you must have sent them away without giving them anything, and you must have oppressed orphans.
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Because you did all those things, now there are traps that will catch you; now things appear that terrify you and cause you to tremble.
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It is as though it had become very dark, with the result that you cannot see anything, and it is as though a flood covered you.
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But consider this, Job: God lives high up in the heavens. From there he looks down on the highest stars.
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So why do you say, ‘God knows nothing about what we are doing’? And why do you say, ‘Dark clouds keep him from seeing us, so he cannot judge us’?
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Do you think that while he walks on the dome that covers the sky, where there are thick clouds around him, he cannot see what we do?’
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Will you, Job, continue to conduct your life in the old way that evil people have done for many years?
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They suddenly died while they were still young; they disappeared like everything disappears when there is a flood.
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They kept saying to God, ‘Leave us alone,’ ‘Allow us to be alone,’ and they also said defiantly, ‘God Almighty can do nothing to harm us!’
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Yet it was God who filled their houses with good things; so I cannot agree at all to follow what the wicked plan.
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When righteous people see that God punishes wicked people, they are glad, and they laugh at those wicked people.
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They say, ’Now our enemies have been destroyed, and fire has burned up anything left of their wealth.’
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So, Job, be reconciled to God and make peace with him; if you do that, good things will happen to you.
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Allow him to teach you, and put his words into your mind.
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If you humble yourself and return to God, he will restore you; if you stop doing all the evil things that you have been doing in your house,
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and if you throw away your gold, the fine gold from the dry stream beds in Ophir land,
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then God Almighty will be as precious to you as your gold and your silver have been.
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Then you will be happy because of God, and you will be able to approach him confidently.
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You will pray to him, and he will do what you request him to do; you will do the things that you promised him that you would do.
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Everything that you decide to do will be successful; it will be as though a light were shining on the road in front of you.
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God humbles those who are proud, but he saves those who are downcast.
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God rescues those who are not innocent; they will be rescued because you do what is right.”