Job 22:5–22:14, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Job 22:5–22:14
Eliphaz Invents a Catalogue of Job's Crimes
The catalogue has no evidence from the story
Eliphaz now fills the empty space with crimes. Is not Job's wickedness great? Are not his iniquities infinite? He names taken pledges from brothers, stripped clothing, withheld water from the weary, withheld bread from the hungry, land given to the mighty, sent-away widows, and broken arms of the fatherless.
None of this is shown in the prose tale. Job's later oath will deny it. Eliphaz is not reporting an investigation. He is reading suffering as a confession and writing the missing sins himself.
Darkness and a distant God complete the portrait
Because of those invented acts, Eliphaz says snares are around Job, sudden fear, darkness so that Job cannot see, and a flood of waters. He then claims Job has said that God is high in the heavens, walking the circuit of heaven, hidden by thick clouds, unable to see what happens below.
Job has spoken of divine hiddenness and of a world where the wicked prosper. He has not taught a small, unseeing sky-god. Eliphaz compresses protest into atheism so that he can scold it. The move is pastoral violence: first invent the crime, then invent the creed.
How this should shape us
Refuse to diagnose a person's hidden life from their losses. If you must name wrongdoing, name what can be shown. Do not rewrite a sufferer's prayers into a charge sheet, and do not use this speech to teach that the poor, the widow, or the orphan are props in someone else's lesson.
Teach it back
Explain Job 22:5–22:14 in your own words. Name the speaker, the unit's place in Job, one source-controlled textual or literary observation, one uncertainty, and one harmful use the passage does not authorize.
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Go deeper
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Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Job 22:5–22:14, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 22:5–22:14
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 22:5–22:14.
Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 22:5–22:14
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Enter the Bible Job course, Outline and passage studies: third-cycle breakdown; applied to Job 22:5–22:14
Supports: Polyphony, retribution critique, justice, Job's response, divine verdict, and the book's interpretive openness.
Ausloos, 'A Matter of Justice,' OTE 36.1 (2023), pp. 151-165, poetic dialogue, protest, retribution, and polyphony; applied to Job 22:5–22:14
Sources for This Section
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Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 22:5–22:14, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 22:5–22:14
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 22:5–22:14.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 22:5–22:14
Open the official NET Job PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Job course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Daniel J. Simundson and Kathryn Schifferdecker
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current online edition inspected 2026
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Job course, Outline and passage studies: third-cycle breakdown; applied to Job 22:5–22:14
Open the Enter the Bible Job course ↗peer reviewed open access literary and theological article
A Matter of Justice: The Openness of the Book of Job
Hans Ausloos
Old Testament Essays 36.1, 2023
Supports: Polyphony, retribution critique, justice, Job's response, divine verdict, and the book's interpretive openness.
Exact location: Ausloos, 'A Matter of Justice,' OTE 36.1 (2023), pp. 151-165, poetic dialogue, protest, retribution, and polyphony; applied to Job 22:5–22:14
Open Ausloos on Job and justice ↗