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Job 36

Elihu Says God Gives the Afflicted Justice

Then Elihu continued and said,
2
“Wait for me a little, and I will show you
That there is yet more to be said in God’s behalf.
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I will take up my knowledge from afar,
And I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
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For truly my words are not a lie;
One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
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Behold, God is mighty but does not reject;
He is mighty in the power of His heart.
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He does not keep the wicked alive,
But gives justice to the afflicted.
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He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous;
But with kings on the throne
He has seated them forever, and they are exalted.
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And if they are bound in fetters,
And are caught in the cords of affliction,
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Then He declares to them their work
And their transgressions, that they have magnified themselves.
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He opens their ear to discipline,
And says that they return from wickedness.
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If they hear and serve Him,
They will end their days in prosperity
And their years in pleasures.
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But if they do not hear, they shall pass away by a weapon
And they will breathe their last without knowledge.
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But the godless in heart lay up anger;
They do not cry for help when He binds them.
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They die in youth,
And their life perishes among the cult prostitutes.
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He delivers the afflicted in their affliction,
And opens their ear in time of oppression.
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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 fatness.

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“But you were full of judgment on the wicked;
Judgment and justice take hold of you.
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Beware lest wrath entice you to scoffing;
And do not let the greatness of the atonement turn you aside.
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Will your cries keep you from distress,
Or all the forces of your power?
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Do not long for the night,
When people vanish in their place.
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Be careful, do not turn to wickedness,
For you have chosen this to affliction.
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Behold, God is exalted in His power;
Who is a teacher like Him?
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Who has appointed Him His way,
And who has said, ‘You have worked out unrighteousness’?

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“Remember that you should exalt His work,
Of which men have sung.
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All men have beheld it;
Man looks from afar.
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Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him;
The number of His years is unsearchable.
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For He draws up the drops of water,
They distill rain for His stream,
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Which the clouds pour down,
They drip upon man abundantly.
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Can anyone discern the spreading of the clouds,
The thundering of His pavilion?
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Behold, He spreads His lightning about Him,
And He covers the depths of the sea.
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For by these He judges peoples;
He gives food in abundance.
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He covers His hands with the lightning,
And commands it to strike the mark.
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Its thundering declares about Him;
The cattle also, concerning what is coming up.