Job 34

Elihu Asserts God’s Justice

¹Thus Elihu spoke up and said,[#Hebrew “And”; #Literally “answered”; see NET]

²“Hear my words, you wise men,

and listen to me, you who know,

³for the ear tests words,

and the palate tastes food.

⁴Let us choose justice for ourselves;

let us determine among ourselves what is good—

⁵for Job has said, ‘I am righteous,

but God has taken away my justice.

⁶Should I lie concerning my justice?

Though I am without transgression, my wound caused by an arrow is incurable.’

⁷What man is like Job,

who drinks scorn like water?

⁸And he goes on the road in company with instigators of mischief,

and walks with men of wickedness.

⁹Indeed, he says, ‘A man does not profit

when he takes delight in God.’

¹⁰“Therefore, listen to me, people who have sense:[#Literally “men of heart”]

far be it from God that he should commit wickedness

and that Shaddai should do wrong.

¹¹Indeed, he will repay according to a human being’s deeds,

and according to a man’s way he will let it happen to him.

¹²What’s more, God truly does not act wickedly,

and Shaddai does not pervert justice.

¹³Who gave him charge over the earth?

Or who laid on him the whole world?

¹⁴If he should set his heart to it,

and he should gather his spirit and his breath to himself,

¹⁵all flesh would perish together,

and humankind would return to dust.

¹⁶“But if you have understanding, hear this;[#Hebrew “And”]

listen to what I say.

¹⁷Shall he who hates justice really govern?

Or will you declare the Righteous One, the Mighty, guilty?—

¹⁸the one who says to a king,

‘You worthless man,’ to noblemen, ‘You wicked man,’

¹⁹who shows no partiality to officials[#Literally “he does not lift the face of officials”]

and who does not take note of the noble more than of the insignificant,

for all of them are the work of his hands?

²⁰In a moment they die,

and in the middle of the night the people are shaken, and they pass away,

and they take away the mighty effortlessly.

²¹“Indeed, his eyes are upon the ways of man,

and he sees all his steps.

²²There is no darkness, and there is no deep shadow

where instigators of mischief might hide themselves.

²³Indeed, he has not yet appointed a time for man

to go to God in the judgment.

²⁴He shatters the mighty without investigation,

and he sets others in their place.

²⁵Therefore he knows their works,

and he overturns them in the night

so that they are crushed.

²⁶He strikes them where the wicked stood,[#Literally “among the wicked”]

where there are onlookers,

²⁷because they have turned aside from him

and have not understood any of his ways,

²⁸so that they cause the cry of distress from the helpless to come to him,

and he hears the cry of distress from the needy,

²⁹but he remains quiet, and who can condemn?

And he hides his face, and who can behold him?

Yet he is over a nation and over a person alike,

³⁰so that godless human beings should not reign,

nor those who ensnare the people.

³¹“Indeed, does anyone say to God, ‘I have endured chastisement;

I will not act corruptly again;

³²teach me yourself what I cannot see;[#Literally “apart from what I can see”]

if I have done wrong, I will not repeat it’?

³³According to your judgment, must he repay it because you rejected this?[#Literally “from with you”]

Indeed, you must choose, and not I, so declare what you know.

³⁴Those who have sense say to me,[#Literally “Men of heart”]

and the wise man hearing me says:

³⁵‘Job speaks without knowledge,

and his words are without insight.

³⁶Would that Job were tested up to the end

because his answers are like those from men of mischief,

³⁷for he adds transgression to his sin;

he claps hands among us,

and he multiplies his words against God.’ ”