Job 36

Elihu Extols God's Greatness

¹And Elihu 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 get my knowledge from afar

and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

⁴For truly my words are not false;

one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

⁵“Behold, 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 chains

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 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 youth,

and their life ends among the cult prostitutes.

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 cramping,

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

¹⁷“But you are full of the judgment on the wicked;

judgment and justice seize you.

¹⁸Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing,

and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.

¹⁹Will your cry for help avail to keep you from distress,

or all the force of your strength?

²⁰Do not long for the night,

when peoples vanish in their place.

²¹Take care; do not turn to iniquity,

for this you have chosen rather than affliction.

²²Behold, 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’?

²⁴“Remember to extol his work,

of which men have sung.

²⁵All mankind has looked on it;

man beholds it from afar.

²⁶Behold, God is great, and we know him not;

the number of his years is unsearchable.

²⁷For he draws up the drops of water;

they distill his mist in rain,

²⁸which the skies pour down

and drop on mankind abundantly.

²⁹Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds,

the thunderings of his pavilion?

³⁰Behold, he scatters his lightning about him

and covers the roots of the sea.

³¹For by these he judges peoples;

he gives food in abundance.

³²He covers his hands with the lightning

and commands it to strike the mark.

³³Its crashing declares his presence;

the cattle also declare that he rises.