Job 22 · a question people ask
Had Job done what Eliphaz says in 22:5-9?
Eliphaz says he had: "Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities" (22:5), and he names deeds: pledges taken "for nothing" and the naked stripped (22:6), water and bread withheld (22:7), "You have sent widows away empty" (22:9). He names no one, no time and no place. His grounds run from God's dealing with Job: "Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment?" (22:4), and after the charges, "Therefore snares are around you" (22:10). Here are the book's other words on it, as they stand. Before any speech, the book says Job "was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil" (1:1), and the LORD says the like of him to Satan (1:8). Later Job speaks of his own life: "because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him" (29:12), and "If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail" (31:16) … "then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone" (31:22). Those are Job's words about himself, as 22:5-9 are Eliphaz's words about him. What the book says of the friends' words is 42:7, and it doesn't say which words it means. These notes set the verses side by side and don't decide.
The verses
“Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he 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 brother 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 man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it. You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken. Therefore snares are around you. Sudden fear troubles you,”
“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil.”
“The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.””
“because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,”