Job 22:17

Study note

Setting — Eliphaz reports that arrogant individuals speak directly to God, demanding He withdraw His presence and questioning His ability to affect them. This declaration occurs within a speech contrasting the sudden destruction of the wicked with the speaker’s deliberate distance from their counsel.

The words — The Hebrew verb סוּר (sur) literally means “depart” or “turn away,” standing in direct address to אֵל (El) for “God.” The phrase concludes with שַׁדַּי (Shaddai), rendered “the Almighty,” which anchors the speakers’ challenge to divine power.

The thread — This defiant posture matches Job 21:14, where the wicked refuse to know God’s ways, and reflects the pattern of rejection that Romans 1:28 describes as resulting in a depraved mind.

Why it lands — The text presents a claim of divine irrelevance while the surrounding context notes God’s prior provision to those very individuals. It requires a reader to examine whether their own stance acknowledges or dismisses the authority behind observable reality.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.