Job 36:1-28 ▼

1 And Elihu added and said:

2 “Surround unto me a little, and I will show you, that there are words yet to God.

3 I will lift up my knowledge from afar, and to my Maker I will ascribe righteousness.

4 For truly, my words are not false; the one complete in knowledge is with you.

5 Behold, God is mighty, and He does not despise; He is mighty in strength of heart.

6 He does not keep the wicked alive, and He gives justice to the afflicted.

7 He does not take away His eyes from the righteous, but they are with kings on the throne; and He has seated them forever, and they are exalted.

8 And if they are bound in the fetters, caught in the cords of affliction,

9 then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, because they magnified themselves.

10 And He opens their ear to correction, and He says that they should turn back from iniquity.

11 If they do hear and serve, they will complete their days in good, and their years in pleasantness.

12 And if they do not obey, by a weapon they shall pass away, and they shall die as without knowledge.

13 And the godless of heart set the nose; they do not cry out when He binds them.

14 Their soul dies in youth, and their life among the male shrine prostitutes.

15 He rescues the afflicted one by his affliction, and uncovers their ear by oppression.

16 And indeed He has drawn you from the mouth of distress, into a broad place without constraint under it, and the resting of your table is full of richness.

17 And you are filled with the judgment of the wicked; judgment and justice take hold—

18 for wrath, lest it entice you with mocking, and a large bribe not let it stretch you.

19 Can your opulence make arrangement in time of distress, or all the forces of strength?

20 Do not long for the night, for the coming up of peoples in place of them.

21 Take heed not to turn to iniquity, for upon this you have been chosen by affliction.

22 Behold, God is exalted in His power; who is a teacher like Him?

23 Who has appointed for Him His way? Or who has said, ‘You have done unrighteousness’?

24 Remember that you should magnify His work, of which men have sung.

25 Every man has gazed on it; mankind looks on it from afar.

26 Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him, and there is no searching the number of His years.

27 For He draws up drops of water; they distill as rain from the mist,

28 which the clouds pour down; they drop upon man in abundance.