Bible Strands
Job 22:6
For you needlessly demanded security from your brothers and deprived the naked of their clothing.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Eliphaz addresses Job, accusing him of accumulated wickedness during his prolonged suffering. He claims Job's current trials result from past exploitation of vulnerable community members.
The words — The Hebrew verb תַחְבֹּ֣ל (tachbol) translates literally as "you have held in pledge," paired with חִנָּ֑ם (chinnam), "without cause." These terms describe the unlawful seizure and retention of collateral.
The thread — This pattern of unjust collateral retention appears in Exodus 22:26, which mandates returning a cloak by sunset. Ezekiel 18:12 and 18:16 similarly condemn withholding pledges while contrasting it with giving bread to the hungry and covering the naked.
Why it lands — The text states that demanding security without cause and stripping clothing from the naked constitutes active wickedness. Readers must acknowledge that economic coercion and the denial of basic necessities are direct moral violations.
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.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
Cross-references
- Exodus 22:26 If you take your neighbor’s cloak as collateral, return it to him by sunset,
- Ezekiel 18:12 He oppresses the poor and needy; he commits robbery and does not restore a pledge. He lifts his eyes to idols; he commits abominations.
- Ezekiel 18:16 He does not oppress another, or retain a pledge, or commit robbery. He gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing.
- Deuteronomy 24:10 When you lend anything to your neighbor, do not enter his house to collect security.
- Job 24:3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge.
- Deuteronomy 24:6 Do not take a pair of millstones or even an upper millstone as security for a debt, because that would be taking one’s livelihood as security.
- Job 24:9 The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt.
- Job 31:19 if I have seen one perish for lack of clothing, or a needy man without a cloak,
- Ezekiel 18:7 He does not oppress another, but restores the pledge to the debtor. He does not commit robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing.
- Amos 2:8 They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. And in the house of their God, they drink wine obtained through fines.