Job 35-36

Job 35

¹Moreover Elihu answered,

²“Do you think this to be your right, or do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s,’

³that you ask, ‘What advantage will it be to you? What profit will I have, more than if I had sinned?’

⁴I will answer you, and your companions with you.

⁵Look to the skies, and see. See the skies, which are higher than you.

⁶If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him? If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?

⁷If you are righteous, what do you give him? Or what does he receive from your hand?

⁸Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are, and your righteousness may profit a son of man.

⁹“By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.

¹⁰But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,

¹¹who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’

¹²There they cry, but no one answers, because of the pride of evil men.

¹³Surely God will not hear an empty cry, neither will the Almighty regard it.

¹⁴How much less when you say you don’t see him. The cause is before him, and you wait for him!

¹⁵But now, because he has not visited in his anger, neither does he greatly regard arrogance,

¹⁶therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk, and he multiplies words without knowledge.”

Job 36

¹Elihu also continued, and said,

²“Bear with me a little, and I will show you; for I still have something to say on God’s behalf.

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

⁴For truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

⁵“Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding.

⁶He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked, but gives justice to the afflicted.

⁷He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.

⁸If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions,

⁹then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.

¹⁰He also opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity.

¹¹If they listen and serve him, they will spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.

¹²But if they don’t listen, they will perish by the sword; they will die without knowledge.

¹³“But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them.

¹⁴They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean.

¹⁵He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in oppression.

¹⁶Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a wide place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.

¹⁷“But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you.

¹⁸Don’t let riches entice you to wrath, neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.

¹⁹Would your wealth sustain you in distress, or all the might of your strength?

²⁰Don’t desire the night, when people are cut off in their place.

²¹Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction.

²²Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?

²³Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness’?

²⁴“Remember that you magnify his work, about which men have sung.

²⁵All men have looked on it. Man sees it afar off.

²⁶Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.

²⁷For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor,

²⁸which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly.

²⁹Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunderings of his pavilion?

³⁰Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea.

³¹For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance.

³²He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark.

³³Its noise tells about him, and the livestock also, concerning the storm that comes up.