Job 22:17-18

22:17 They were saying to God, ‘Turn away from us,’

and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’ ¹ 

22:18 But it was he ²  who filled their houses

with good things –

yet the counsel of the wicked ³ 

was far from me. ⁴ 

[22:17]  ¹ tn The form in the text is “to them.” The LXX and the Syriac versions have “to us.”

[22:18]  ² tn The pronoun is added for this emphasis; it has “but he” before the verb.

[22:18]  ³ tn See Job 10:3.

[22:18]  ⁴ tc The LXX has “from him,” and this is followed by several commentators. But the MT is to be retained, for Eliphaz is recalling the words of Job. Verses 17 and 18 are deleted by a number of commentators as a gloss because they have many similarities to 21:14-16. But Eliphaz is recalling what Job said, in order to say that the prosperity to which Job alluded was only the prelude to a disaster he denied (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 156).