Job 36 - 37 - Legacy Standard Bible

Job 36 - 37

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.

I will take up my knowledge from afar,

And I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

For truly my words are not a lie;

One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

Behold, God is mighty but does not reject;

He is mighty in the power of His heart.

He does not keep the wicked alive,

But gives justice to the afflicted.

He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous;

But with kings on the throne

He has seated them forever, and they are exalted.

And if they are bound in fetters,

And are caught in the cords of affliction,

Then He declares to them their work

And their transgressions, that they have magnified themselves.

He opens their ear to discipline,

And says that they return from wickedness.

If they hear and serve Him,

They will end their days in prosperity

And their years in pleasures.

But if they do not hear, they shall pass away by a weapon

And they will breathe their last without knowledge.

But the godless in heart lay up anger;

They do not cry for help when He binds them.

They die in youth,

And their life perishes among the cult prostitutes.

He delivers the afflicted in their affliction,

And opens their ear in time of oppression.

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.

“But you were full of judgment on the wicked;

Judgment and justice take hold of you.

Beware lest wrath entice you to scoffing;

And do not let the greatness of the atonement turn you aside.

Will your cries keep you from distress,

Or all the forces of your power?

Do not long for the night,

When people vanish in their place.

Be careful, do not turn to wickedness,

For you have chosen this to affliction.

Behold, God is exalted in His power;

Who is a teacher like Him?

Who has appointed Him His way,

And who has said, ‘You have worked out unrighteousness’?

“Remember that you should exalt His work,

Of which men have sung.

All men have beheld it;

Man looks from afar.

Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him;

The number of His years is unsearchable.

For He draws up the drops of water,

They distill rain for His stream,

Which the clouds pour down,

They drip upon man abundantly.

Can anyone discern the spreading of the clouds,

The thundering of His pavilion?

Behold, He spreads His lightning about Him,

And He covers the depths of the sea.

For by these He judges peoples;

He gives food in abundance.

He covers His hands with the lightning,

And commands it to strike the mark.

Its thundering declares about Him;

The cattle also, concerning what is coming up.

Elihu Speaks of God’s Voice

“At this also my heart trembles,

And leaps from its place.

Listen closely to the thunder of His voice,

And the rumbling that goes out from His mouth.

Under the whole heaven He lets it loose,

And His lightning to the ends of the earth.

After it, a voice roars;

He thunders with His majestic voice,

And He does not restrain the lightnings when His voice is heard.

God thunders with His voice marvelously,

Doing great things which we do not know.

For to the snow He says, ‘Fall on the earth,’

And to the downpour of rain and the downpour of rains, ‘Be strong.’

He seals the hand of every man,

That all men may know His work.

Then the beast goes into its lair

And dwells in its den.

Out of the south comes the storm,

And out of the north the cold.

From the breath of God ice is made,

And the expanse of the waters is frozen.

Also with moisture He loads the thick cloud;

He scatters the cloud of His lightning.

It changes direction, turning around by His guidance,

That it may do whatever He commands it

On the face of the inhabited earth.

Whether for correction, or for His world,

Or for lovingkindness, He causes it to happen.

“Give ear to this, O Job,

Stand and carefully consider the wondrous deeds of God.

Do you know how God establishes them,

And makes the lightning of His cloud to shine?

Do you know about the layers of the thick clouds,

The wonders of one perfect in knowledge,

You whose garments are hot,

When the land is quiet because of the south wind?

Can you, with Him, spread out the skies,

Strong as a molten mirror?

Make us know what we shall say to Him;

We cannot arrange our case because of darkness.

Shall it be recounted to Him that I would speak?

If a man says a word, will He indeed be swallowed up?

“So now men do not see the light which is bright in the skies;

But the wind has passed and cleared them.

Out of the north comes golden splendor;

Around God is fearsome majesty.

The Almighty—we cannot find Him;

He is exalted in power

And He will not afflict justice and abundant righteousness.

Therefore men fear Him;

He does not regard any who are wise of heart.”