1 Elihu Says God Gives the Afflicted Justice Then Elihu continued and said,
2 “Wait for me a little, and I will show youThat there 36:2Lit are yet words for God is yet more to be said in God’s behalf.
3 “I will take up my knowledge from afar,And I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
4 “For truly my words are not a lie;One who is 36:4Or blameless perfect in knowledge is with you.
5 “Behold, God is mighty but does not reject;He ismighty in the power ofHisheart.
6 “He does not keep the wicked alive,But gives justice to the afflicted.
7 “He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous;But with kings on the throneHe has seated them forever, and they are exalted.
8 “And if they are bound in fetters,And are caught in the cords of affliction,
9 Then He declares to them their workAnd their transgressions, that they have magnified themselves.
10 “He opens their ear to discipline,And says that they return from wickedness.
11 “If they hear and serveHim,They will end their days in prosperityAnd their years in pleasures.
12 “But if they do not hear, they shall pass away by a weaponAnd they will breathe their last without knowledge.
13 “But the godless in heart lay up anger;They do not cry for help when He binds them.
14 “ 36:14Or Their soul dies They die in youth,And their lifeperishesamong the cult prostitutes.
15 “He delivers the afflicted in 36:15Lit his their affliction,And opens their ear in 36:15Or adversity time ofoppression.
16 “Then indeed, He enticed you from the mouth of distress,Instead of it, a broad place with no constraint;And the comfort of your table full of 36:16Or rich food fatness.
17 ¶“But you were full of judgment on the wicked;Judgment and justice take holdof you.
18 “Bewarelest wrath entice you to scoffing;And do not let the greatness of the atonement turn you aside.
19 “Will your 36:19Or riches cries keep you from distress,Or all the forces ofyourpower?
20 “Do not long for the night,When people 36:20Lit go up vanish in their place.
21 “Be careful, do not turn to wickedness,For you have chosen this to affliction.
22 “Behold, God is exalted in His power;Who is a teacher like Him?
23 “Who has appointed Him His way,And who has said, ‘You have workedout 36:23 Or injustice unrighteousness’?
24 ¶“Remember that you should exalt His work,Of which men have sung.
25 “All men have beheld it;Man looks from afar.
26 “Behold, God is exalted, and we do not knowHim;The number of His years is unsearchable.
27 “For He draws up the drops of water,They distill rain for His 36:27Or mist stream,
28 Which the clouds pour down,They drip upon man abundantly.
29 “Can anyone discern the spreading of the clouds,The thundering of His 36:29Lit booth pavilion?
30 “Behold, He spreads His 36:30Lit light lightning about Him,And He covers the depths of the sea.
31 “For by these He judges peoples;He gives food in abundance.
32 “He coversHishands with the 36:32Lit light lightning,And commands it to strike the mark.
33 “Its thundering declares about Him;The cattle also, concerning what is coming up.