Job Chapter 22

Eliphaz Speaks a Last Time

This chapter opens the third and final cycle of debate between Job and his friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Unlike the earlier rounds, this cycle is shorter and more severe, because the dialogue has effectively collapsed. In the first round, the friends spoke largely in generalities about suffering and divine justice, avoiding direct accusations. In the second round, they increasingly focused on the fate of the wicked, implicitly aligning Job with that category. By the third round, the restraint is gone. Eliphaz speaks openly and directly, accusing Job of specific sins without evidence. The breach between Job and his friends is now complete, and meaningful dialogue can no longer continue. The friends are no longer attempting to comfort or reason, but to prosecute and condemn.

A. Eliphaz attacks Job’s character.

1. (Job 22:1–3) Eliphaz asks what value Job has to God.

“Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?
Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?”

Eliphaz opens by challenging the very premise behind Job’s lament. He assumes that Job believes God owes him something because of his righteousness. Eliphaz argues that even if a man is wise or righteous, that righteousness benefits only the man himself and adds nothing to God. In his reasoning, God is entirely self-sufficient, lacking nothing, and therefore cannot be enriched, obligated, or advantaged by human obedience.

From a theological standpoint, Eliphaz is emphasizing the transcendence and self-sufficiency of God. God does not depend on man, and He did not create humanity out of any deficiency or need. In that narrow sense, Eliphaz is correct. Scripture consistently affirms that God is complete in Himself and that human obedience does not increase His being or essence.

However, Eliphaz misapplies this truth to Job’s situation. While God does not need righteousness, Scripture clearly teaches that God does take pleasure in righteousness. Earlier in the book, the Lord Himself declared Job to be blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil. Eliphaz’s argument ignores God’s own testimony. His theology is abstract, detached from the actual facts of Job’s life and from the revealed perspective of heaven.

Eliphaz’s error is not in asserting God’s self-sufficiency, but in concluding that human righteousness is therefore irrelevant to God. Scripture elsewhere affirms that obedience delights the Lord, not because He gains something essential, but because righteousness aligns with His holy character and purposes.

2. (Job 22:4–11) Eliphaz accuses Job of great wickedness.

“Will he reprove thee for fear of thee? will he enter with thee into judgment?
Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?
For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.
But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honourable man dwelt in it.
Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee;
Or darkness, that thou canst not see; and abundance of waters cover thee.”

Eliphaz now moves from theological accusation to moral indictment. He asserts that Job’s suffering cannot be discipline for godly fear, but must be divine judgment for extreme and continual wickedness. He explicitly claims that Job’s iniquities are infinite, a statement utterly disconnected from reality and contradicted by God Himself earlier in the narrative.

What follows is a list of alleged sins, each one serious and socially destructive. Eliphaz accuses Job of exploiting the poor, seizing collateral unjustly, stripping the vulnerable, withholding basic necessities from the weary and hungry, favoring the powerful, oppressing widows, and crushing the fatherless. These are precisely the sins most despised in the wisdom and prophetic traditions of Scripture. They represent a total abuse of wealth, influence, and social power.

Yet none of these accusations are supported by evidence. Eliphaz does not cite witnesses, actions, or events. His sole basis is Job’s present suffering. Because Job has experienced catastrophic loss, Eliphaz assumes catastrophic sin must be the cause. His reasoning is circular and rigid, driven by a false doctrine of immediate retributive justice.

Eliphaz cannot conceive of a scenario in which a righteous man suffers without personal guilt. He is unaware of the heavenly events recorded earlier in the book, where Job’s trials were not punishment, but a test permitted by God for a purpose far beyond human sight. Eliphaz’s inability to see beyond his theological system leads him to slander a righteous man.

The conclusion Eliphaz draws is predictable. Because he assumes Job is guilty, he interprets Job’s fear, confusion, and darkness as the natural consequence of sin. In his view, Job is ensnared by his own wrongdoing and overwhelmed by divine judgment. What Eliphaz describes as justice is actually a tragic misreading of providence.

B. Eliphaz attacks Job’s theology.

1. (Job 22:12–20) A contrast between the wicked and the righteous.

“Is not God in the height of heaven?
And behold the height of the stars, how high they are!
And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud?
Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven.
Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?
Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:
Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?
Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
The righteous see it, and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn.
Whereas our substance is not cut down, but the remnant of them the fire consumeth.”

Eliphaz begins by asserting the exalted position of God. He emphasizes God’s transcendence, pointing to the height of heaven and the loftiness of the stars as evidence of God’s supreme majesty and authority. His intention is to correct what he believes is Job’s flawed theology. Eliphaz assumes that Job’s complaints reveal a low view of God, as if Job believed the Almighty to be distant, obscured, or indifferent, unable to see through the dark clouds of human suffering.

Eliphaz then places words in Job’s mouth that Job never actually spoke. Job never claimed that God could not see or judge. Instead, Job struggled to understand why a God who does see would allow such suffering. Eliphaz misrepresents lament as unbelief and confusion as rebellion. This is a critical error. Job’s wrestling is relational and reverent, not atheistic or dismissive.

Eliphaz next warns Job against walking in “the old way” of the wicked. He refers to men who were cut down prematurely, whose foundations were swept away by a flood. This is almost certainly an allusion to the judgment of the antediluvian world in the days of Noah, when wickedness reached such a level that God destroyed the earth with water. By invoking this imagery, Eliphaz places Job in the company of those ancient rebels who told God to depart from them and rejected His authority.

The irony is striking. Eliphaz acknowledges that God once filled the houses of these wicked men with good things, yet insists that their counsel was ultimately worthless and condemned. He assumes that prosperity followed by destruction proves wickedness. Again, his theology is rigid and mechanical. He sees no room for mystery, testing, or righteous suffering.

Eliphaz concludes by contrasting the response of the righteous with the fate of the wicked. According to him, the righteous rejoice when judgment falls, and the innocent mock the downfall of the ungodly. This is not said to instruct, but to indict. Eliphaz implies that because Job does not rejoice in what has happened, he must not be righteous. In doing so, Eliphaz turns grief into guilt and sorrow into proof of sin.

2. (Job 22:21–30) Eliphaz counsels Job to make himself right with God.

“Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.
Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.
If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.
Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.
Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver.
For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.
Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.
Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.
When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.
He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.”

Eliphaz now shifts from accusation to exhortation. He urges Job to acquaint himself with God and find peace, promising that good will follow. In isolation, this counsel is sound and biblical. Scripture consistently teaches that peace, blessing, and restoration flow from a right relationship with God. However, the problem lies in the premise. Eliphaz assumes that Job has departed from God, when in reality Job has clung to God more tightly than ever, even in anguish.

Eliphaz calls Job to receive instruction from God and return to the Almighty, putting iniquity far from his dwelling. He assumes hidden sin as the root of Job’s suffering. From this false assumption, he outlines a sequence of blessings that will follow repentance: material provision, divine protection, restored joy, answered prayer, and influence over others.

Eliphaz describes delight in the Almighty as the natural result of repentance. He speaks of lifting one’s face to God, a picture of restored confidence, forgiveness, and freedom from fear. These words describe genuine spiritual realities, yet they are tragically misplaced. Job’s struggle is not due to estrangement from God but to his inability to reconcile his experience with what he knows to be true about God.

Eliphaz continues with promises of guidance and deliverance. Light will shine on Job’s ways, humility will be rewarded, and even others will be delivered through Job’s purity. Ironically, this final statement foreshadows what will actually happen at the end of the book, when Job intercedes for Eliphaz and the others, and God accepts Job’s prayer on their behalf. Eliphaz speaks truth without understanding its application.

Eliphaz ends with noble language but flawed insight. His words are lofty, his promises attractive, and his theology orthodox in form. Yet because he misdiagnosed Job’s condition, his counsel becomes cruel rather than comforting. He offers repentance to a man already faithful, restoration to a man not under judgment, and correction to a man whom God Himself has declared upright.