Job 36–37

Elihu Exalts God’s Goodness

³⁶Elihu continued and said:

²“Bear with me a little, and I will show you,

for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf.

³I will bring my knowledge from far away

and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.^*

⁴For truly my words are not false;

one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.^*

⁵“Surely God is mighty and does not despise any;

he is mighty in strength of understanding.^*

⁶He does not keep the wicked alive

but gives the afflicted their right.^*

⁷He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous,

but with kings on the throne

he sets them forever, and they are exalted.^*

⁸And if they are bound in fetters

and caught in the cords of affliction,

⁹then he declares to them their work

and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.^*

¹⁰He opens their ears to instruction

and commands that they return from iniquity.^*

¹¹If they listen and serve him,

they complete their days in prosperity

and their years in pleasantness.^*

¹²But if they do not listen, they shall perish by the sword

and die without knowledge.^*

¹³“The godless in heart cherish anger;

they do not cry for help when he binds them.^*

¹⁴They die in their youth,

and their life ends in shame.^y*

¹⁵He delivers the afflicted by their affliction

and opens their ear by adversity.^*

¹⁶He also allured you out of distress

into a broad place where there was no constraint,

and what was set on your table was full of fatness.^*

¹⁷“But you are obsessed with the case of the wicked;

judgment and justice seize you.

¹⁸Beware that wrath does not entice you into scoffing,

and do not let the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.^*

¹⁹Will your cry avail to keep you from distress,

or will all the force of your strength?

²⁰Do not long for the night,

when peoples are cut off in their place.^*

²¹Beware! Do not turn to iniquity;

because of that you have been tried by affliction.^*

²²See, God is exalted in his power;

who is a teacher like him?

²³Who has prescribed for him his way,

or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?^*

Elihu Proclaims God’s Majesty

²⁴“Remember to extol his work,

of which mortals have sung.^*

²⁵All people have looked on it;

everyone watches it from far away.

²⁶Surely God is great, and we do not know him;

the number of his years is unsearchable.^*

²⁷For he draws up the drops of water;

he distills^z his mist in rain,^*

²⁸which the skies pour down

and drop upon mortals abundantly.

²⁹Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds,

the thunderings of his pavilion?^*

³⁰See, he scatters his lightning around him

and covers the roots of the sea.

³¹For by these he governs peoples;

he gives food in abundance.^*

³²He covers his hands with the lightning

and commands it to strike the mark.^*

³³Its crashing^a tells about him;

he is jealous^b with anger against iniquity.^*

³⁷“At this also my heart trembles

and leaps out of its place.

²Listen, listen to the thunder of his voice

and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.^*

³Under the whole heaven he lets it loose,

and his lightning to the corners of the earth.

⁴After it his voice roars;

he thunders with his majestic voice,

and he does not restrain the lightnings^c when his voice is heard.^*

⁵God thunders wondrously with his voice;

he does great things that we cannot comprehend.^*

⁶For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth’;

and the shower of rain, his heavy shower of rain,^*

⁷serves as a sign on everyone’s hand,

so that all whom he has made may know it.^d*

⁸Then the animals go into their lairs

and remain in their dens.^*

⁹From its chamber comes the whirlwind

and cold from the scattering winds.^*

¹⁰By the breath of God ice is given,

and the broad waters are frozen fast.^*

¹¹He loads the thick cloud with moisture;

the clouds scatter his lightning.^*

¹²They turn round and round by his guidance

to accomplish all that he commands them

on the face of the habitable world.^*

¹³Whether for correction or for his land

or for love, he causes it to happen.^*

¹⁴“Hear this, O Job;

stop and consider the wondrous works of God.^*

¹⁵Do you know how God lays his command upon them

and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?

¹⁶Do you know the balancings of the clouds,

the wondrous works of the one whose knowledge is perfect,^*

¹⁷you whose garments are hot

when the earth is still because of the south wind?

¹⁸Can you, like him, spread out the skies,

hard as a molten mirror?^*

¹⁹Teach us what we shall say to him;

we cannot draw up our case because of darkness.

²⁰Should he be told that I want to speak?

Did anyone ever wish to be swallowed up?

²¹Now, no one can look on the light

when it is bright in the skies,

when the wind has passed and cleared them.

²²Out of the north comes golden splendor;

around God is awesome majesty.

²³The Almighty^e—we cannot find him;

he is great in power and justice,

and abundant righteousness he will not violate.^*

²⁴Therefore mortals fear him;

he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”^*