Job 22:5

"Is it for your piety that he reproves you, that he enters with you into judgment?"

Key Reflection

Job 22:5 challenges the notion that God would rebuke Job out of genuine concern for his piety or righteousness. In this verse, Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends, suggests that since Job is suffering immensely, it must be because of hidden sins rather than due to any inherent goodness or piousness on Job's part. This cultural context reflects the belief in an immediate and direct relationship between one’s actions and their consequences, where God’s judgments are seen as both just and proportional to one’s deeds.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Is not thy wickedness great? -That is, “Is it not utter presumption and folly for a man, whose wickedness is undoubtedly so great, to presume to enter into a litigation with God?” Eliphaz here “assumes” it as an undeniable proposition, that Job was a great sinner. This charge had not been directly made before. He and his friends had argued evidently on that supposition, and had maintained that one who was a great sinner would be punished in this life for it, and they had left it to be implied, in no doubtful manner, that they so regarded Job. But the charge had not been before so openly made. Here Eliphaz argues as if that were a point that could not be disputed.

More from Job 22

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