Job 36

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.^*