Job 36

1 Elihu also continued, and said,⋮

2 “Bear with me a little, and I will show you; for I still have something to say on God’s behalf.⋮

3 I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.⋮

4 For truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.⋮

5 “Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding.⋮

6 He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked, but gives justice to the afflicted.⋮

7 He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.⋮

8 If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions,⋮

9 then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.⋮

10 He also opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity.⋮

11 If they listen and serve him, they will spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.⋮

12 But if they don’t listen, they will perish by the sword; they will die without knowledge.⋮

13 “But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them.⋮

14 They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean.⋮

15 He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in oppression.⋮

16 Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a wide place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.⋮

17 “But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you.⋮

18 Don’t let riches entice you to wrath, neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.⋮

19 Would your wealth sustain you in distress, or all the might of your strength?⋮

20 Don’t desire the night, when people are cut off in their place.⋮

21 Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction.⋮

22 Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?⋮

23 Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness?’⋮

24 “Remember that you magnify his work, about which men have sung.⋮

25 All men have looked on it. Man sees it afar off.⋮

26 Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.⋮

27 For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor,⋮

28 which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly.⋮

29 Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunderings of his pavilion?⋮

30 Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea.⋮

31 For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance.⋮

32 He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark.⋮

33 Its noise tells about him, and the livestock also, concerning the storm that comes up.⋮