Job 36

¹Elihu 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. ³I will get my knowledge from afar, and will 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 doesn’t despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding. ⁶He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked, but gives to the afflicted their right. ⁷He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted. ⁸If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions, ⁹then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly. ¹⁰He also opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity. ¹¹If they listen and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. ¹²But if they don’t listen, they shall perish by the sword; they shall die without knowledge. ¹³“But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them. ¹⁴They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean. ¹⁵He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in oppression. ¹⁶Yes, 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. ¹⁸Don’t let riches entice you to wrath, neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside. ¹⁹Would your wealth sustain you in distress, or all the might of your strength? ²⁰Don’t desire the night, when people are cut off in their place. ²¹Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction. ²²Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him? ²³Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness?’ ²⁴“Remember that you magnify his work, whereof men have sung. ²⁵All men have looked on it. Man sees it afar off. ²⁶Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable. ²⁷For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor, ²⁸Which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly. ²⁹Yes, can any understand the spreading of the clouds, and the thunderings of his pavilion? ³⁰Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea. ³¹For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance. ³²He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark. ³³Its noise tells about him, and the livestock also concerning the storm that comes up.

World English Bible (public domain)