3. Is it any advantage to the Almighty if you are righteous?Would it be any gain to him if you were perfect?
4. Is it because you’re so pious that he accuses youand brings judgment against you?
5. No, it’s because of your wickedness!There’s no limit to your sins.
6. “For example, you must have lent money to your friendand demanded clothing as security.Yes, you stripped him to the bone.
7. You must have refused water for the thirstyand food for the hungry.
8. You probably think the land belongs to the powerfuland only the privileged have a right to it!
9. You must have sent widows away empty-handedand crushed the hopes of orphans.
10. That is why you are surrounded by trapsand tremble from sudden fears.
11. That is why you cannot see in the darkness,and waves of water cover you.
12. “God is so great—higher than the heavens,higher than the farthest stars.
13. But you reply, ‘That’s why God can’t see what I am doing!How can he judge through the thick darkness?
14. For thick clouds swirl about him, and he cannot see us.He is way up there, walking on the vault of heaven.’
15. “Will you continue on the old pathswhere evil people have walked?
16. They were snatched away in the prime of life,the foundations of their lives washed away.
17. For they said to God, ‘Leave us alone!What can the Almighty do to us?’
18. Yet he was the one who filled their homes with good things,so I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.
19. “The righteous will be happy to see the wicked destroyed,and the innocent will laugh in contempt.
20. They will say, ‘See how our enemies have been destroyed.The last of them have been consumed in the fire.’
21. “Submit to God, and you will have peace;then things will go well for you.
22. Listen to his instructions,and store them in your heart.