Job 36

1Elihu spoke again.

2Have a little patience with me, and I will show you, for I still have words for God.

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

4For indeed, my words contain no falsehood; one perfect in knowledge is with you.

5Behold, God is mighty and rejects no one; mighty is his strength of understanding.

6He does not keep the wicked alive, but grants justice to the afflicted.

7He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but seats them with kings upon the throne forever, and they are exalted.

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

9He declares to them their deeds and their transgressions, because they exalt themselves.

10He opens their ears to discipline and commands them to return from evil.

11If they heed and serve him, they will end their days in prosperity and their years in delights.

12But if they do not listen, they will fall by the sword and die without knowledge.

13Hypocrites in heart store up anger; they do not cry out when he binds them.

14Their souls die in youth, and their lives among the sodomites.

15He rescues the afflicted through their affliction, and opens their ears in oppression.

16Indeed, he would have enticed you from the mouth of distress into a broad place where no straitness lies beneath it, and what rests on your table would be full of fatness.

17You are filled with the judgment of the wicked; judgment and justice hold you.

18Because of wrath, beware lest he lure you away with his stroke—no great ransom can turn you aside.

19Will he array your riches—not gold, nor all the forces of strength?

20Do not desire the night when people rise from their places.

21Be careful not to turn to evil, for you chose this over affliction.

22See, God is exalted by his strength. Who is an instructor like him?

23Who has assigned his way for him? Who says, "You have done injustice?"

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

25All men have seen him; man beholds him from afar.

26Behold, God is great, but we cannot know him; the number of his years is past searching.

27For he diminishes drops of water, which pour down as rain from his vapor.

28Which the clouds distil and pour abundantly upon man.

29Can anyone understand the clouds' spreading out or the roarings of his shelter?

30See, he spreads his light upon it and covers the roots of the sea.

31For by them he judges peoples; he gives food abundantly.

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

33Its sound proclaims him, and the livestock also concerning what rises up.