Job 36

Job 36

Elihu Exalts God’s Goodness

1Elihu 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 bring my knowledge from far away[#Job 8.3; 37.23]

and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

4For truly my words are not false;[#Job 33.3; 37.16]

one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

5“Surely God is mighty and does not despise any;[#Job 12.13; Ps 22.24]

he is mighty in strength of understanding.

6He does not keep the wicked alive[#Job 5.15; 8.22]

but gives the afflicted their right.

7He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous,[#Ps 33.18; 113.8]

but with kings on the throne

he sets them forever, and they are exalted.

8And if they are bound in fetters

and caught in the cords of affliction,

9then he declares to them their work[#Job 15.25]

and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.

10He opens their ears to instruction[#2 Kings 17.13; Job 33.16]

and commands that they return from iniquity.

11If they listen and serve him,[#Isa 1.19, 20]

they complete their days in prosperity

and their years in pleasantness.

12But if they do not listen, they shall perish by the sword[#Job 4.21; 15.22]

and die without knowledge.

13“The godless in heart cherish anger;[#Rom 2.5]

they do not cry for help when he binds them.

14They die in their youth,[#Job 15.32; 22.16]

and their life ends in shame.

15He delivers the afflicted by their affliction[#v 10 ; Ps 119.67]

and opens their ear by adversity.

16He also allured you out of distress[#Ps 23.5; 118.5; Hos 2.14]

into a broad place where there was no constraint,

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

17“But you are obsessed with the case of the wicked;

judgment and justice seize you.

18Beware that wrath does not entice you into scoffing,[#Job 33.24; 34.33; Jon 4.4, 9]

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

19Will your cry avail to keep you from distress,

or will all the force of your strength?

20Do not long for the night,[#Job 34.20, 25]

when peoples are cut off in their place.

21Beware! Do not turn to iniquity;[#Ps 66.18; Heb 11.25]

because of that you have been tried by affliction.

22See, God is exalted in his power;

who is a teacher like him?

23Who has prescribed for him his way,[#Job 8.3; 34.13; Isa 40.13; 1 Cor 2.16]

or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?

Elihu Proclaims God’s Majesty

24“Remember to extol his work,[#2 Sam 7.26; Ps 35.27; 59.16]

of which mortals have sung.

25All people have looked on it;

everyone watches it from far away.

26Surely God is great, and we do not know him;[#Ps 102.24]

the number of his years is unsearchable.

27For he draws up the drops of water;[#Ps 147.8]

he distills his mist in rain,

28which the skies pour down

and drop upon mortals abundantly.

29Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds,[#Job 26.14; 37.11, 16]

the thunderings of his pavilion?

30See, he scatters his lightning around him

and covers the roots of the sea.

31For by these he governs peoples;[#Job 37.13; Ps 136.25]

he gives food in abundance.

32He covers his hands with the lightning[#Job 37.15]

and commands it to strike the mark.

33Its crashing tells about him;[#Job 37.2; #36.33 Meaning of Heb uncertain]

he is jealous with anger against iniquity.

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ