For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
Parallel translations
- WEB For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
- BSB For you needlessly demanded security from your brothers and deprived the naked of their clothing.
- NKJV For you have taken pledges from your brother for no reason, And stripped the naked of their clothing.
- NASB “For you have seized pledges from your brothers without cause, And stripped people naked.
- NLT “For example, you must have lent money to your friend and demanded clothing as security. Yes, you stripped him to the bone.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Eliphaz fabricates specific sins, claiming Job seized pledges from his brothers and left people naked. He invents social injustices Job never committed.
Overview
Eliphaz accuses Job of exploiting the vulnerable by abusing the practice of pledges (cf. Ex 22:26-27). These charges are baseless, contradicted by Job's later defense in chapter 31. The verse reveals how desperate Eliphaz has become, manufacturing evidence to fit his theory. It warns against assuming hidden guilt in those who suffer.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Exod 22:26If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down:
- Ezek 18:12Hath oppressed the poor and needy, hath spoiled by violence, hath not restored the pledge, and hath lifted up his eyes to the idols, hath committed abomination,
- Ezek 18:16Neither hath oppressed any, hath not withholden the pledge, neither hath spoiled by violence, but hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment,
- Deut 24:10–18When thou dost lend thy brother any thing, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge.
- Job 24:3They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
- Job 24:9–10They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor.
- Deut 24:6No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man’s life to pledge.
- Job 31:19–20If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;
- Ezek 18:7And hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment;
- Amos 2:8And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 22:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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