Job 36–37

36Then Elihu continued, saying:

²Be patient with me a little longer, and I will inform you,

for there is still more to be said on God’s behalf.

³I will get my knowledge from a distant place

and ascribe justice to my Maker.

⁴For my arguments are without flaw; ^b

one who has perfect knowledge is with you.

⁵Yes, God is mighty, but He despises no one;

He understands all things. ^cd

⁶He does not keep the wicked alive, ^e

but He gives justice to the afflicted.

⁷He does not remove His gaze from the righteous,

but He seats them forever with enthroned kings,

and they are exalted.

⁸If people are bound with chains

and trapped by the cords of affliction,

⁹God tells them what they have done

and how arrogantly they have transgressed.

¹⁰He opens their ears ^fto correction

and insists they repent from iniquity.

¹¹If they serve Him obediently,

they will end their days in prosperity

and their years in happiness. ^g

¹²But if they do not obey,

they will cross the river of death ^h

and die without knowledge. ⁱ

¹³Those who have a godless heart harbor anger;

even when God binds them, they do not cry for help.

¹⁴They die in their youth;

their life ends among male cult prostitutes. ^j

¹⁵God rescues the afflicted by their affliction;

He instructs them by their torment.

¹⁶Indeed, He lured you from the jaws ^kof distress

to a spacious and unconfined place.

Your table was spread with choice food.

¹⁷Yet now you are obsessed with the judgment due the wicked;

judgment and justice have seized you.

¹⁸Be careful that no one lures you with riches; ^l

do not let a large ransom ^mlead you astray. ⁿ

¹⁹Can your wealth ^oor all your physical exertion

keep you from distress? ^p

²⁰Do not long for the night

when nations will disappear from their places.

²¹Be careful that you do not turn to iniquity,

for that is why you have been tested by ^qaffliction.

²²Look, God shows Himself exalted by His power.

Who is a teacher like Him?

²³Who has appointed His way for Him,

and who has declared, “You have done wrong”? ^r

²⁴Remember that you should praise His work,

which people have sung about. ^s

²⁵All mankind has seen it;

people have looked at it from a distance. ^t

²⁶Yes, God is exalted beyond our knowledge; ^u

the number of His years cannot be counted. ^v

²⁷For He makes waterdrops evaporate; ^w

they distill the rain into its ^xmist, ^y

²⁸which the clouds pour out

and shower abundantly on mankind.

²⁹Can anyone understand how the clouds spread out

or how the thunder roars from God’s pavilion? ^z

³⁰See how He spreads His lightning ^aaround Him

and covers the depths of the sea.

³¹For He judges the nations with these;

He gives food in abundance. ^b

³²He covers His hands with lightning

and commands it to hit its mark.

³³The ^cthunder declares His presence; ^d

the cattle also, the approaching storm.

37My heart ^epounds at this

and leaps from my chest. ^f

²Just listen to His thunderous voice

and the rumbling that comes from His mouth.

³He lets it loose beneath the entire sky;

His lightning to the ends ^gof the earth.

⁴Then there comes a roaring sound;

God thunders ^hwith His majestic voice.

He does not restrain the lightning

when His rumbling voice is heard.

⁵God thunders marvelously with His voice;

He does great things that we cannot comprehend.

⁶For He says to the snow, ⁱ“Fall to the earth,”

and the torrential rains, His mighty torrential rains,

⁷serve as His sign to all mankind,

so that all men may know His work.

⁸The wild animals enter their lairs

and stay in their dens. ^j

⁹The windstorm comes from its chamber,

and the cold from the driving north winds.

¹⁰Ice is formed by the breath of God, ^k

and watery expanses are frozen.

¹¹He saturates clouds with moisture; ^l

He scatters His lightning through them.

¹²They swirl about,

turning round and round at His direction,

accomplishing everything He commands them

over the surface of the inhabited world.

¹³He causes this to happen for punishment,

for His land, or for His faithful love.

¹⁴Listen to this, Job.

Stop and consider God’s wonders.

¹⁵Do you know how God directs His clouds

or makes their lightning flash?

¹⁶Do you understand how the clouds float,

those wonderful works of Him who has perfect knowledge?

¹⁷You whose clothes get hot

when the south wind brings calm to the land,

¹⁸can you help God spread out the skies

as hard as a cast metal mirror?

¹⁹Teach us what we should say to Him; ^m

we cannot prepare our case because of our darkness.

²⁰Should He be told that I want to speak?

Can a man speak when he is confused?

²¹Now men cannot even look at the sun

when it is in the skies,

after a wind has swept through and cleared them away.

²²Yet out of the north He comes, shrouded in a golden glow;

awesome ⁿmajesty surrounds Him.

²³The Almighty—we cannot reach Him—

He is exalted in power!

He will not oppress justice and abundant righteousness,

²⁴Therefore, men fear Him.

He does not look favorably on any who are wise ^oin heart.