Whereas our substance is not cut down, but the remnant of them the fire consumeth.
Job 22:20 stands inside the extended dispute between Job and his three friends over the meaning of his afflictions, and specifically inside Eliphaz's speech setting forth the protection and deliverance of the righteous. In that dispute the operative assumption of the friends was that affliction marked sin and the withdrawal of divine favor, while prosperity marked righteousness and the presence of divine favor. Their maxims were often true as general principles yet were misapplied when pressed upon Job's case. Hence the verse cannot be taken to prove that suffering demonstrates God's displeasure, nor can every promise uttered by Eliphaz in that speech be taken to describe Job's actual situation. The sayings of the friends in this controversy are not in themselves a dependable witness to the truth about Job or about God, except where they are confirmed by other inspired Scripture.
Job 22:20 stands inside the extended dispute between Job and his three friends over the meaning of his afflictions, and specifically inside Eliphaz's speech setting forth the protection and deliverance of the righteous. In that dispute the operative assumption of the friends was that affliction marked sin and the withdrawal of divine favor, while prosperity marked righteousness and the presence of divine favor. Their maxims were often true as general principles yet were misapplied when pressed upon Job's case. Hence the verse cannot be taken to prove that suffering demonstrates God's displeasure, nor can every promise uttered by Eliphaz in that speech be taken to describe Job's actual situation. The sayings of the friends in this controversy are not in themselves a dependable witness to the truth about Job or about God, except where they are confirmed by other inspired Scripture.