1Elihu continued,2‘Put up with me a little longer. I’ll show you I can speak up for God even more.3I get my knowledge from far away. I’ll announce that the God who made me is fair.4You can be sure that my words are true. One who has perfect knowledge is talking to you.5‘God is mighty, but he doesn’t hate people. He’s mighty, and he knows exactly what he’s going to do.6He doesn’t keep alive those who are evil. Instead, he gives suffering people their rights.7He watches over those who do what is right. He puts them on thrones as if they were kings. He honours them for ever.8But some people are held by chains. Their pain ties them up like ropes.9God tells them what they’ve done. He tells them they’ve become proud and sinned against him.10He makes them listen when he corrects them. He commands them to turn away from the evil things they’ve done.11If they obey him and serve him, they’ll enjoy a long and happy life. Things will go well with them.12But if they don’t listen to him, they’ll be killed by swords. They’ll die because they didn’t want to know anything about him.13‘Those whose hearts are ungodly are always angry. Even when God puts them in chains, they don’t cry out for help.14They die while they are still young. They die among the male prostitutes at the temples.15But God saves suffering people while they suffer. He speaks to them while they are hurting.16‘Job, he wants to take you out of the jaws of trouble. He wants to bring you to a wide and safe place. He’d like to seat you at a table that is loaded with the best food.17But now you are loaded down with the punishment sinners will receive. You have been judged fairly.18Be careful that no one tempts you with riches. Don’t take money from people who want special favours, no matter how much it is.19Can your wealth keep you out of trouble? Can all your mighty efforts keep you going?20Don’t wish for the night to come so you can drag people away from their homes.21Be careful not to do what is evil. You seem to like evil better than suffering!22‘God is honoured because he is so powerful. There is no teacher equal to him.23Who has told him what he can do? Who has said to him, “You have done what is wrong”?24Remember to thank him for what he’s done. People have praised him with their songs.25Every human being has seen his work. People can see it from far away.26How great God is! We’ll never completely understand him. We’ll never find out how long he has lived.27‘He makes mist rise from the water. Then it falls as rain into the streams.28The clouds pour down their moisture. Rain showers fall on people everywhere.29Who can understand how God spreads out the clouds? Who can explain how he thunders from his home in heaven?30See how he scatters his lightning around him! He lights up the deepest parts of the ocean.31The rain he sends makes things grow for the nations. He provides them with plenty of food.32He holds lightning bolts in his hands. He commands them to strike their marks.33His thunder announces that a storm is coming. Even the cattle let us know it’s approaching.
Job 36
English Standard Version
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. (Job 35:10; Ps 78:2; Re 15:3; Re 16:5; Re 16:7; Re 19:1)4For truly my words are not false; one who is perfect in knowledge is with you. (Job 37:16)5“Behold, God is mighty, and does not despise any; he is mighty in strength of understanding. (Job 8:20; Job 9:4; Job 12:13; Job 12:16; Ps 138:6)6He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives the afflicted their right. (Job 34:28; Job 36:15)7He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne he sets them forever, and they are exalted. (Ps 33:18; Ps 34:15; Ps 75:10; Ps 113:8; Ps 132:12)8And if they are bound in chains and caught in the cords of affliction, (Job 36:13; Ps 107:10)9then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly. (Job 15:25)10He opens their ears to instruction and commands that they return from iniquity. (Job 33:16; Jer 18:11)11If they listen and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness. (Job 21:13; Isa 1:19)12But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge. (Job 4:21; Job 33:18; Job 35:16)13“The godless in heart cherish anger; they do not cry for help when he binds them. (Job 15:34; Job 36:8)14They die in youth, and their life ends among the cult prostitutes. (Job 15:32; Job 22:16; Ps 55:23)15He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity. (Job 33:15; Job 36:6; Job 36:10; Ps 119:67; Ps 119:71)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. (Job 37:10; Ps 4:1; Ps 18:19; Ps 23:5; Ps 31:8; Ps 36:8; Ps 118:5)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. (Job 33:24)19Will your cry for help avail to keep you from distress, or all the force of your strength? (Pr 11:4)20Do not long for the night, when peoples vanish in their place. (Job 27:20; Job 34:20; Job 34:25; Job 40:12)21Take care; do not turn to iniquity, for this you have chosen rather than affliction. (Ps 66:18)22Behold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him? (Job 34:32; Job 35:11)23Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’? (Job 34:10; Job 34:13; Isa 40:13; Ro 11:34; 1Co 2:16)24“Remember to extol his work, of which men have sung. (Job 33:27; Ps 92:5; Ps 104:33; Lu 1:46; Re 15:3)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. (Job 37:5; Ps 90:2; Ps 102:27; 1Co 13:12)27For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain, (Ge 2:6; Ps 147:8)28which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly. (De 33:28; Pr 3:20)29Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion? (Job 26:9; Ps 18:11; Ps 105:39)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. (Job 37:13; Ps 104:27; Ps 136:25; Ps 145:15; Ps 147:9; Ac 14:17)32He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark. (Hab 3:4)33Its crashing declares his presence;[1] the cattle also declare that he rises.