Text -- Job 22:1-17 (NET)

Eliphaz’s Third Speech

22:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: 22:2 “Is it to God that a strong man is of benefit? Is it to him that even a wise man is profitable? 22:3 Is it of any special benefit to the Almighty that you should be righteous, or is it any gain to him that you make your ways blameless? 22:4 Is it because of your piety that he rebukes you and goes to judgment with you? 22:5 Is not your wickedness great and is there no end to your iniquity? 22:6 “For you took pledges from your brothers for no reason, and you stripped the clothing from the naked. 22:7 You gave the weary no water to drink and from the hungry you withheld food. 22:8 Although you were a powerful man, owning land, an honored man living on it, 22:9 you sent widows away empty-handed, and the arms of the orphans you crushed. 22:10 That is why snares surround you, and why sudden fear terrifies you, 22:11 why it is so dark you cannot see, and why a flood of water covers you. 22:12 “Is not God on high in heaven? And see the lofty stars, how high they are! 22:13 But you have said, ‘What does God know? Does he judge through such deep darkness? 22:14 Thick clouds are a veil for him, so he does not see us, as he goes back and forth in the vault of heaven.’ 22:15 Will you keep to the old path that evil men have walked– 22:16 men who were carried off before their time, when the flood was poured out on their foundations? 22:17 They were saying to God, ‘Turn away from us,’ and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Job 22:1

¹ sn The third and final cycle of speeches now begins with Eliphaz’ final speech. Eliphaz will here underscore the argument that man’s ills are brought about by sin; he will then deduce from Job’s sufferings the sins he must have committed and the sinful attitude he has about God. The speech has four parts: Job’s suffering is proof of his sin (2-5), Job’s sufferings demonstrate the kinds of sin Job committed (6-11), Job’s attitude about God (12-20), and the final appeal and promise to Job (21-30).

NET Notes: Job 22:2

¹ tn Some do not take this to be parallel to the first colon, taking this line as a statement, but the parallel expressions here suggest the question is repeated.

NET Notes: Job 22:3

¹ tn The word חֵפֶץ (khefets) in this passage has the nuance of “special benefit; favor.” It does not just express the desire for something or the interest in it, but the profit one derives from it.

² tn The verb תַתֵּם (tattem) is the Hiphil imperfect of תָּמַם (tamam, “be complete, finished”), following the Aramaic form of the geminate verb with a doubling of the first letter.

NET Notes: Job 22:4

¹ tn The word “your fear” or “your piety” refers to Job’s reverence – it is his fear of God (thus a subjective genitive). When “fear” is used of religion, it includes faith and adoration on the positive side, fear and obedience on the negative.

² sn Of course the point is that God does not charge Job because he is righteous; the point is he must be unrighteous.

NET Notes: Job 22:5

¹ tn The adjective רַבָּה (rabbah) normally has the idea of “great” in quantity (“abundant,” ESV) rather than “great” in quality.

NET Notes: Job 22:6

¹ tn The verb חָבַל (khaval) means “to take pledges.” In this verse Eliphaz says that Job not only took as pledge things the poor need, like clothing, but he did it for no reason.

² tn The “naked” here refers to people who are poorly clothed. Otherwise, a reading like the NIV would be necessary: “you stripped the clothes…[leaving them] naked.” So either he made them naked by stripping their garments off, or they were already in rags.

NET Notes: Job 22:7

¹ tn The term עָיֵף (’ayef) can be translated “weary,” “faint,” “exhausted,” or “tired.” Here it may refer to the fainting because of thirst – that would make a good parallel to the second part.

NET Notes: Job 22:8

¹ tn The idiom is “a man of arm” (= “powerful”; see Ps 10:15). This is in comparison to the next line, “man of face” (= “dignity; high rank”; see Isa 3:5).

² tn Heb “and a man of arm, to whom [was] land.” The line is in contrast to the preceding one, and so the vav here introduces a concessive clause.

³ tn The expression is unusual: “the one lifted up of face.” This is the “honored one,” the one to whom the dignity will be given.

⁴ tn Many commentators simply delete the verse or move it elsewhere. Most take it as a general reference to Job, perhaps in apposition to the preceding verse.

NET Notes: Job 22:9

¹ tn The “arms of the orphans” are their helps or rights on which they depended for support.

² tn The verb in the text is Pual: יְדֻכָּא (yÿdukka’, “was [were] crushed”). GKC 388 §121.b would explain “arms” as the complement of a passive imperfect. But if that is too difficult, then a change to Piel imperfect, second person, will solve the difficulty. In its favor is the parallelism, the use of the second person all throughout the section, and the reading in all the versions. The versions may have simply assumed the easier reading, however.

NET Notes: Job 22:11

¹ tn Heb “or dark you cannot see.” Some commentators and the RSV follow the LXX in reading אוֹ (’o, “or”) as אוֹר (’or, “light”) and translate it “The light has become dark” or “Your light has become dark.” A. B. Davidson suggests the reading “Or seest thou not the darkness.” This would mean Job does not understand the true meaning of the darkness and the calamities.

² tn The word שִׁפְעַת (shif’at) means “multitude of.” It is used of men, camels, horses, and here of waters in the heavens.

NET Notes: Job 22:12

¹ tn This reading preserves the text as it is. The nouns “high” and “heavens” would then be taken as adverbial accusatives of place (see GKC 373-74 §118.g).

² tn The parallel passage in Isa 40:26-27, as well as the context here, shows that the imperative is to be retained here. The LXX has “he sees.”

³ tn Heb “head of the stars.”

NET Notes: Job 22:13

¹ sn Eliphaz is giving to Job the thoughts and words of the pagans, for they say, “How does God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High?” (see Ps 73:11; 94:11).

NET Notes: Job 22:14

¹ tn Heb “and he does not see.” The implied object is “us.”

² sn The word is “circle; dome”; here it is the dome that covers the earth, beyond which God sits enthroned. A. B. Davidson (Job, 165) suggests “on the arch of heaven” that covers the earth.

³ sn The idea suggested here is that God is not only far off, but he is unconcerned as he strolls around heaven – this is what Eliphaz says Job means.

NET Notes: Job 22:15

¹ tn The “old path” here is the way of defiance to God. The text in these two verses is no doubt making reference to the flood in Genesis, one of the perennial examples of divine judgment.

NET Notes: Job 22:16

¹ tn The word “men” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied to clarify the relative pronoun “who.”

² tn The verb קָמַט (qamat) basically means “to seize; to tie together to make a bundle.” So the Pual will mean “to be bundled away; to be carried off.”

³ tn The clause has “and [it was] not the time.” It may be used adverbially here.

⁴ tn The word is נָהַר (nahar, “river” or “current”); it is taken here in its broadest sense of the waters on the earth that formed the current of the flood (Gen 7:6, 10).

⁵ tn The verb יָצַק (yatsaq) means “to pour out; to shed; to spill; to flow.” The Pual means “to be poured out” (as in Lev 21:10 and Ps 45:3).

⁶ tn This word is then to be taken as an adverbial accusative of place. Another way to look at this verse is what A. B. Davidson (Job, 165) proposes “whose foundation was poured away and became a flood.” This would mean that that on which they stood sank away.

NET Notes: Job 22:17

¹ tn The form in the text is “to them.” The LXX and the Syriac versions have “to us.”