Job 34

1 Then Elihu continued and said:
2 Hear, O wise men, my discourse, and you that have knowledge, hear me!
3 For the ear tests words, as the taste does food.
4 Let us discern for ourselves what is right; let us learn between us what is good.
5 For Job has said, I am innocent, but God has taken what is my due.
6 Notwithstanding my right I am set at nought; in my wound the arrow rankles, sinless though I am.
7 What man is like Job? He drinks in blasphemies like water,
8 Keeps company with evildoers and goes along with wicked men,
9 When he says, It profits a man nought that he is pleasing to God.
10 Therefore, men of understanding, hearken to me: far be it from God to do wickedness; far from the Almighty to do wrong!
11 Rather, he requites men for their conduct, and brings home to a man his way of life.
12 Surely, God cannot act wickedly, the Almighty cannot violate justice.
13 Who gave him government over the earth, or who else set all the land in its place?
14 If he were to take back his spirit to himself, withdraw to himself his breath,
15 All flesh would perish together, and man would return to the dust.
16 Now, do you, O Job, hear this! Hearken to the words I speak!
17 Can an enemy of justice indeed be in control, or will you condemn the supreme Just One,
18 Who says to a king, You are worthless! and to nobles, You are wicked!
19 Who neither favors the person of princes, nor respects the rich more than the poor? For they are all the work of his hands;
20 in a moment they die, even at midnight. He brings on nobles, and takes them away, removing the powerful without lifting a hand;
21 For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he beholds all his steps.
22 There is no darkness so dense that evildoers can hide in it.
23 For he forewarns no man of his time to come before God in judgment.
24 Without a trial he breaks the mighty, and sets others in their stead,
25 Therefore he discerns their works; he turns at night and crushes them.
26 (OMITTED TEXT)
27 Because they turned away from him and heeded none of his ways,
28 But caused the cries of the poor to reach him, so that he heard the plea of the afflicted.
29 If he remains tranquil, who then can condemn? If he hides his face, who then can behold him?
30 (OMITTED TEXT)
31 When anyone says to God, I was misguided; I will offend no more.
32 Teach me wherein I have sinned; if I have done wrong, I will do so no more,
33 Would you then say that God must punish, since you reject what he is doing? It is you who must choose, not I; speak, therefore, what you know.
34 Men of understanding will say to me, every wise man who hears my views:
35 Job speaks without intelligence, and his words are without sense.
36 Let Job be tried to the limit, since his answers are those of the impious;
37 For he is adding rebellion to his sin by brushing off our arguments and addressing many words to God.

Job 35

1 Then Elihu proceeded and said:
2 Do you think it right to say, I am just rather than God?
3 To say, What does it profit me; what advantage have I more than if I had sinned?
4 I have words for a reply to you and your three companions as well.
5 Look up to the skies and behold; regard the heavens high above you.
6 If you sin, what injury do you do to God? Even if your offenses are many, how do you hurt him?
7 If you are righteous, what do you give him, or what does he receive from your hand?
8 Your wickedness can affect only a man like yourself; and your justice only a fellow human being.
9 In great oppression men cry out; they call for help because of the power of the mighty,
10 Saying, Where is God, my Maker, who has given visions in the night,
11 Taught us rather than the beasts of the earth, and made us wise rather than the birds of the heavens?
12 Though thus they cry out, he answers not against the pride of the wicked.
13 But it is idle to say God does not hear or that the Almighty does not take notice.
14 Even though you say that you see him not, the case is before him; with trembling should you wait upon him.
15 But now that you have done otherwise, God's anger punishes, nor does he show concern that a man will die.
16 Yet Job to no purpose opens his mouth, and without knowledge multiplies words.

Job 36

1 Elihu proceeded further and said:
2 Wait yet a little and I will instruct you, for there are still words to be said on God's behalf.
3 I will bring my knowledge from afar, and to my Maker I will accord the right.
4 For indeed, my theme cannot fail me: the one perfect in knowledge I set before you.
5 Behold, God rejects the obstinate in heart; he preserves not the life of the wicked.
6 He withholds not the just man's rights, but grants vindication to the oppressed,
7 And with kings upon thrones he sets them, exalted forever.
8 Or if they are bound with fetters and held fast by bonds of affliction,
9 Then he makes known to them what they have done and their sins of boastful pride.
10 He opens their ears to correction and exhorts them to turn back from evil.
11 If they obey and serve him, they spend their days in prosperity, their years in happiness.
12 But if they obey not, they perish; they die for lack of knowledge.
13 The impious in heart lay up anger for themselves; they cry not for help when he enchains them;
14 Therefore they expire in youth, and perish among the reprobate.
15 But he saves the unfortunate through their affliction, and instructs them through distress.
16 (OMITTED TEXT)
17 (OMITTED TEXT)
18 (OMITTED TEXT)
19 (OMITTED TEXT)
20 (OMITTED TEXT)
21 Take heed, turn not to evil; for you have preferred carousal to affliction.
22 Behold, God is sublime in his power. What teacher is there like him?
23 Who prescribes for him his conduct, or who can say, You have done wrong?
24 Remember, you should extol his work, which men have praised in song.
25 All men contemplate it; man beholds it from afar.
26 Lo, God is great beyond our knowledge; the number of his years is past searching out.
27 He holds in check the waterdrops that filter in rain through his mists,
28 Till the skies run with them and the showers rain down on mankind.
29 (OMITTED TEXT)
30 Lo! he spreads the clouds in layers as the carpeting of his tent.
31 For by these he nourishes the nations, and gives them food in abundance.
32 In his hands he holds the lightning, and he commands it to strike the mark.
33 His thunder speaks for him and incites the fury of the storm.

Job 37

1 At this my heart trembles and leaps out of its place,
2 To hear his angry voice as it rumbles forth from his mouth!
3 Everywhere under the heavens he sends it, with his lightning, to the ends of the earth.
4 Again his voice roars--the majestic sound of his thunder.
5 He does great things beyond our knowing; wonders past our searching out.
6 For he says to the snow, Fall to the earth; likewise to his heavy, drenching rain.
7 He shuts up all mankind indoors;
8 the wild beasts take to cover and remain quietly in their dens.
9 Out of its chamber comes forth the tempest; from the north winds, the cold.
10 With his breath God brings the frost, and the broad waters become congealed.
11 With hail, also, the clouds are laden, as they scatter their flashes of light.
12 He it is who changes their rounds, according to his plans, in their task upon the surface of the earth,
13 whether for punishment or mercy, as he commands.
14 Hearken to this, O Job! Stand and consider the wondrous works of God!
15 Do you know how God lays his commands upon them, and makes the light shine forth from his clouds?
16 Do you know how the clouds are banked, the wondrous work of him who is perfect in knowledge?
17 You, whom the streams of water fail when a calm from the south comes over the land,
18 Do you spread out with him the firmament of the skies, hard as a brazen mirror?
19 Teach us then what we shall say to him; we cannot, for the darkness, make our plea.
20 Will he be told about it when I speak, or when a man says he is being destroyed?
21 Nay, rather, it is as the light which men see not while it is obscured among the clouds, till the wind comes by and sweeps the clouds away.
22 From the North the splendor comes, surrounding God's awesome majesty!
23 The Almighty! we cannot discover him, pre-eminent in power and judgment; his great justice owes no one an accounting.
24 Therefore men revere him, though none can see him, however wise their hearts.