Job 36

36Be patient and listen a little longer

to what I am saying on God’s behalf.

³My knowledge is wide; I will use what I know

to show that God, my Creator, is just.

⁴Nothing I say to you is false;

you see before you a truly wise man.

⁵How strong God is! He despises no one;

there is nothing he doesn’t understand.

⁶He does not let sinners live on,

and he always treats the poor with justice.

⁷He protects those who are righteous;

he allows them to rule like kings

and lets them be honoured for ever.

⁸But if people are bound in chains,

suffering for what they have done,

⁹God shows them their sins and their pride.

¹⁰He makes them listen to his warning

to turn away from evil.

¹¹If they obey God and serve him,

they live out their lives in peace and prosperity.

¹²But if not, they will die in ignorance

and cross the stream into the world of the dead.

¹³Those who are godless keep on being angry,

and even when punished, they don’t pray for help.

¹⁴They die while they are still young,

worn out by a life of disgrace.

¹⁵But God teaches people through suffering

and uses distress to open their eyes.

¹⁶God brought you out of trouble,

and let you enjoy security;

your table was piled high with food.

¹⁷But now you are being punished as you deserve.

¹⁸Be careful not to let bribes deceive you,

or riches lead you astray.

¹⁹It will do you no good to cry out for help;

all your strength can’t help you now.

²⁰Don’t wish for night to come,

the time when nations will perish.

²¹Be careful not to turn to evil;

your suffering was sent to keep you from it.

²²Remember how great is God’s power;

he is the greatest teacher of all.

²³No one can tell God what to do

or accuse him of doing evil.

²⁴He has always been praised for what he does;

you also must praise him.

²⁵Everyone has seen what he has done;

but we can only watch from a distance.^m

²⁶We cannot fully know his greatness

or count the number of his years.

²⁷It is God who takes water from the earth

and turns it into drops of rain.

²⁸He lets the rain pour from the clouds

in showers for the whole human race.

²⁹No one knows how the clouds move

or how the thunder roars

through the sky, where God dwells.

³⁰He sends lightning through all the sky,

but the depths of the sea remain dark.

³¹This is how he feedsⁿ the people

and provides an abundance of food.

³²He seizes the lightning with his hands

and commands it to hit the mark.

³³Thunder announces the approaching storm,

and the cattle know it is coming.