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New Living Translation |   | |
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| | Job 22:1 | Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
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| | Job 22:2 | "Can a person's actions be of benefit to God? Can even a wise person be helpful to him?
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| | Job 22:3 | Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous? Would it be any gain to him if you were perfect?
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| | Job 22:4 | Is it because of your reverence for him that he accuses and judges you?
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| | Job 22:5 | Not at all! It is because of your wickedness! Your guilt has no limit!
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| | Job 22:6 | "For example, you must have lent money to your friend and then kept the clothing he gave you as a pledge. Yes, you stripped him to the bone.
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| | Job 22:7 | You must have refused water for the thirsty and food for the hungry.
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| | Job 22:8 | After all, you think the land belongs to the powerful and that those who are privileged have a right to it!
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| | Job 22:9 | You must have sent widows away without helping them and crushed the strength of orphans.
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| | Job 22:10 | That is why you are surrounded by traps and sudden fears.
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| | Job 22:11 | That is why you cannot see in the darkness, and waves of water cover you.
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| | Job 22:12 | "God is so great--higher than the heavens, higher than the farthest stars.
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| | Job 22:13 | But you reply, 'That's why God can't see what I am doing! How can he judge through the thick darkness?
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| | Job 22:14 | For thick clouds swirl about him, and he cannot see us. He is way up there, walking on the vault of heaven.'
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| | Job 22:15 | "Will you continue on the old paths where evil people have walked?
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| | Job 22:16 | They were snatched away in the prime of life, and the foundations of their lives were washed away forever.
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| | Job 22:17 | For they said to God, 'Leave us alone! What can the Almighty do for us?'
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| | Job 22:18 | But they forgot that he had filled their homes with good things, so I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.
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| | Job 22:19 | "Now the righteous will be happy to see the wicked destroyed, and the innocent will laugh them to scorn.
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| | Job 22:20 | They will say, 'Surely our enemies have been destroyed. The last of them have been consumed in the fire.'
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| | Job 22:21 | "Stop quarreling with God! If you agree with him, you will have peace at last, and things will go well for you.
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| | Job 22:22 | Listen to his instructions, and store them in your heart.
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| | Job 22:23 | If you return to the Almighty and clean up your life, you will be restored.
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| | Job 22:24 | Give up your lust for money, and throw your precious gold into the river.
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| | Job 22:25 | Then the Almighty himself will be your treasure. He will be your precious silver!
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| | Job 22:26 | "Then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and look up to God.
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| | Job 22:27 | You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows to him.
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| | Job 22:28 | Whatever you decide to do will be accomplished, and light will shine on the road ahead of you.
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| | Job 22:29 | If someone is brought low and you say, 'Help him up,' God will save the downcast.
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| | Job 22:30 | Then even sinners will be rescued by your pure hands."
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