¹Elihu continued speaking:

²“Hear my words, you sages!

Listen to me, you who know so much!

³For the ear tests words,

just as the palate tastes food.

⁴Let’s choose for ourselves what is just;

let’s decide among ourselves what is good.

⁵For Iyov says, ‘I am in the right,

but God is denying me justice.

⁶Against justice, I am considered a liar;

my wound is mortal, though I committed no crime.’

⁷“Is there a man like Iyov,

who drinks in scoffing like water,

⁸who keeps company with evildoers

and goes with wicked men,

⁹since he thinks, ‘It profits a person nothing

to be in accord with God’?

¹⁰“So listen to me, you men with sense!

Far be it from God to do anything wicked!

¹¹For he pays people back for what they do

and sees that each gets what his conduct deserves.

¹²It is certain that God does nothing wicked;

Shaddai will not pervert justice.

¹³Did someone else put him in charge of the earth?

Who else established the entire world?

¹⁴If he were to take back man’s heart to himself,

if he gathered to himself his spirit and breath;

¹⁵all flesh would instantly perish,

everyone would return to dust.

¹⁶“If you have any sense, [Iyov,] hear this;

listen to what I am saying.

^17-18Should a hater of justice be in control?

If you wouldn’t tell a king, ‘You’re a scoundrel!’

or nobles, ‘You are wicked men!’

then you shouldn’t condemn the Just and Mighty One,

¹⁹who is neither partial toward princes

nor favors the rich over the poor,

since they all are the work of his hands.

²⁰They may die in a moment, in the middle of the night —

the people are shaken and pass away,

the mighty are removed without human hands.

²¹For he keeps watch on a person’s ways;

he sees his every step.

²²There is no darkness, no death-like gloom,

where wrongdoers can hide;

²³for he doesn’t give warning to people

when they must appear before God in judgment.

²⁴He shatters the mighty without needing to investigate

and sets up others in their place.

²⁵Therefore, aware of what they are doing,

he overturns them by night, and they are crushed.

²⁶He strikes them as if they were common criminals

in the open sight of others,

²⁷because they turned away from following him

and gave no thought to any of his ways,

²⁸thereby bringing before him the cries of the poor;

and he hears the cries of the oppressed.

²⁹“But if God is silent, who can accuse him;

if he hides his face, who can see him?

He may do this to nations and persons alike,

³⁰so that godless men will not become kings,

and the people will not be lured into traps.

³¹“For has anyone said to God,

‘I have been chastised without having offended;

³²teach me what I have failed to see;

and if I have done wrong, I will do it no more’?

³³Must his rewards meet your approval?

Well, you are the one who doesn’t like them,

so you, not I, should pick the alternative;

come on, say what you think!

³⁴Intelligent people will tell me,

every wise man who hears me will say,

³⁵‘Iyov is speaking without thinking;

his words lack discernment.’

³⁶“I wish Iyov would be kept on trial forever,

because he answers like wicked men.

³⁷For now to his sin he adds rebellion;

he [mockingly] claps his hands among us

and keeps adding to his words against God.”