Job 36

Elihu speaks for God once more

¹Then Elihu continued: ²Be patient with me a little longer, and I will show you \q that there is more to be said on God’s behalf. ³I will draw my knowledge from far and wide, \q and I will show that my Maker is in the right. ⁴Truly, my words are not false; \q one whose knowledge is sound is here with you. ⁵God is mighty, and yet he despises no one; \q he is mighty in strength of understanding. ⁶He does not let the wicked live on, \q but he gives the afflicted their rights. ⁷He does not take his eyes off the righteous; \q he seats them with kings on the throne, \q and they are raised up forever.^{a 8}And if people are bound in chains, \q held fast by cords of suffering, ⁹then he shows them what they have done, \q their transgressions, how they have acted with pride. ¹⁰He opens their ears to correction \q and commands them to turn back from evil. ¹¹If they listen and serve him, \q they will spend their days in prosperity \q and their years in contentment. ¹²But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword \q and die without understanding.^{b 13}But those who are godless at heart hold on to their anger; \q they do not cry for help even when he binds them. ¹⁴They die in their youth, \q and their life ends among the shrine prostitutes. ¹⁵He rescues the afflicted through their suffering \q and opens their ears through distress. ¹⁶He was also drawing you out of the jaws of distress \q into a wide place with nothing to hem you in, \q to a table loaded with the richest food.^{c 17}But now you are full of the judgment due to the wicked; \q judgment and justice have taken hold of you.^{d 18}Beware that anger does not lure you into scoffing, \q and do not let a great ransom turn you aside.^{e 19}Can your riches keep you out of distress, \q or all your mighty efforts?^{f 20}Do not long for the night, \q when peoples are taken away from where they are.^{g 21}Be careful not to turn to evil, \q for you have preferred it to suffering.^{h 22}God is exalted in his power; \q who is a teacher like him? ²³Who has prescribed his path for him, \q or who can say to him, “You have done wrong”? ²⁴Remember to praise his work, \q which people have celebrated in song. ²⁵Everyone has seen it; \q people look on it from far away. ²⁶God is great, beyond our knowing; \q the number of his years cannot be searched out. ²⁷For he draws up the drops of water, \q which distill as rain from his mist, ²⁸which the clouds pour down \q and shower on many people. ²⁹Can anyone understand how the clouds spread out, \q or the thunder from his pavilion? ³⁰See how he scatters his lightning around him \q and covers the depths of the sea. ³¹For by these he judges the peoples \q and gives food in abundance. ³²He fills his hands with lightning \q and commands it to strike the mark. ³³His thunder announces his coming; \q even the cattle sense the storm rising.ⁱ