Job 36

¹ Elihu also continued, and said,

² “Bear with me a little, and I will show you; for I still have something to say on God’s behalf.

³ I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

⁴ For truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

⁵ “Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding.

⁶ He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked, but gives justice to the afflicted.

⁷ He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.

⁸ If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions,

⁹ then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.

¹⁰ He also opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity.

¹¹ If they listen and serve him, they will spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.

¹² But if they don’t listen, they will perish by the sword; they will die without knowledge.

¹³ “But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them.

¹⁴ They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean.

¹⁵ He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in oppression.

¹⁶ Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a wide place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.

¹⁷ “But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you.

¹⁸ Don’t let riches entice you to wrath, neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.

¹⁹ Would your wealth sustain you in distress, or all the might of your strength?

²⁰ Don’t desire the night, when people are cut off in their place.

²¹ Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction.

²² Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?

²³ Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness’?

²⁴ “Remember that you magnify his work, about which men have sung.

²⁵ All men have looked on it. Man sees it afar off.

²⁶ Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.

²⁷ For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor,

²⁸ which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly.

²⁹ Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunderings of his pavilion?

³⁰ Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea.

³¹ For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance.

³² He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark.

³³ Its noise tells about him, and the livestock also, concerning the storm that comes up.