Good words to admonish the age

Can a man be of any use to God,

when even the wise man's wisdom is of use only to himself?

Does Shaddai derive any benefit from your integrity,

or profit from your blameless conduct?

Would He punish you for your piety,

and hale you off to judgment?

No, rather for your manifold wickednesses,

for your unending iniquities!

You have exacted needless pledges from your brothers,

and men go naked now through your despoiling;

you have grudged water to the thirsty man,

and refused bread to the hungry;

you have narrowed the lands of the poor man down to nothing

to set your crony in his place,

sent widows away empty-handed

and crushed the arms of orphans.

No wonder, then, if snares are all around you,

or sudden terrors make you afraid.

Light has turned to darkness and it blinds you,

and a flood of water overwhelms you.

Does not God live at the height of heaven,

and see the zenith of the stars?

Because He is far above, you said, ‘What does God know?

Can He peer through the shadowed darkness?’

The clouds, to Him, are an impenetrable veil,

and He prowls on the rim of the heavens.

And will you still follow the ancient trail

trodden by the wicked?

Those men who were borne off before their time,

with rivers swamping their foundations,

because they said to God, ‘Go away!

What can Shaddai do to us?’

Yet He Himself had filled their houses with good things,

while these wicked men shut Him out of their counsels.

At the sight of their ruin, good men rejoice,

and the innocent deride them:

‘See how their greatness is brought to nothing!

See how their wealth has perished in the flames!’

Well then! Make peace with Him, be reconciled,

and all your happiness will be restored to you.

Welcome the teaching from His lips,

and keep His words close to your heart.

If you return, humbled, to Shaddai

and drive all injustice from your tents,

if you reckon gold as dust

as Ophir as the pebbles of the torrent,

then you will find Shaddai worth bars of gold

or silver piled in heaps.

Then Shaddai will be all your delight,

and you will lift your face to God.

You will pray, and He will hear;

you will have good reason to fulfill your vows.

Whatever you undertake will go well,

and light will shine on your path;

for He that casts down the boasting of the braggart

is He that saves the man of downcast eyes.

If a man is innocent, He will bring him freedom,

and freedom for you if your hands are kept unstained.

— Eliphaz of Teman (quoted in Job, chapter 22)