Job 36

36 ¹ And Elihu continued and said: ² "Bear with me a little, and I will show you, for there are still words to speak on God's behalf. ³ I will bring my knowledge from afar, and ascribe righteousness to my Maker. ⁴ For truly my words are not false; one perfect in knowledge is with you. ⁵ Look, God is mighty, yet he does not despise; he is mighty in strength of understanding. ⁶ He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives justice to the afflicted. ⁷ He never takes his eyes off the righteous; he seats them with kings on their thrones forever, and they are exalted. ⁸ And if they are bound in chains, caught fast in cords of affliction, ⁹ then he declares to them their deeds and their transgressions, that they have behaved arrogantly. ¹⁰ He opens their ear to instruction, and commands that they turn back from iniquity. ¹¹ If they listen and serve him, they finish their days in prosperity, and their years pass pleasantly. ¹² But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword, and die without knowledge. ¹³ The godless at heart harbor anger; they do not cry for help when he binds them. ¹⁴ Their soul dies in youth, and their life ends among the cult prostitutes. ¹⁵ He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear through adversity. ¹⁶ He would also have drawn you out of the jaws of distress to a wide, open place with no constraint, and your table would be spread with richness. ¹⁷ But you are consumed with the judgment due the wicked; judgment and justice have taken hold of you. ¹⁸ Beware that wrath does not entice you into scoffing, and do not let a large ransom lead you astray. ¹⁹ Can your cry for help keep you from distress, or all the forces of your strength? ²⁰ Do not long for the night, when peoples are cut off from their place. ²¹ Take care; do not turn to iniquity, for you have chosen this rather than affliction. ²² Look, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him?

²³ Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, 'You have done wrong'? ²⁴ Remember to extol his work, which people have celebrated in song. ²⁵ All mankind has looked on it; humanity sees it from afar. ²⁶ Look, God is great, and we do not know him; the number of his years is beyond searching. ²⁷ For he draws up the drops of water; they distill as rain from his mist, ²⁸ which the clouds pour down and drop abundantly on mankind. ²⁹ Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunder of his pavilion? ³⁰ Look, he scatters his lightning around him, and covers the depths of the sea. ³¹ For by these he governs the peoples; he gives food in abundance. ³² He fills his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark. ³³ Its crashing tells of him; even the cattle sense the storm coming.