Job
Job 36
1 Elihu went on further and said,
Wait a Little Longer
2 Wait for me a little longer, so that I may teach you,
for there is speech in me still.
3 I will take up my knowledge from far off,
and by my own works I will say what is right,
4 truly, and my words are not unjust —
it is you who take them unjustly.
5 Know that the Lord will not push the innocent away.
He is mighty in the strength of his heart:
6 he will not give life to the ungodly,
and he will grant the poor their judgment.
7 He will not take his eyes off the righteous;
they will sit on the throne with kings,
and he will seat them in victory, and they will be lifted high.
Chains and Ropes
8 And if they are shackled in irons,
held fast in the ropes of poverty,
9 he will tell them their works and their missteps,
for they will grow strong.
10 But he will listen to the righteous man,
and he has said that they will turn back from wrongdoing.
11 If they listen and are his slaves,
they will finish their days in good things and their years in honor.
12 But he does not keep the ungodly safe,
because they were not willing to know the Lord,
and because when they were warned they would not listen.
13 The hypocrites at heart draw their anger up in ranks;
they will not cry out, because he has bound them.
14 So let their soul die young,
and their life be wounded by messengers,
15 because they crushed the weak and the powerless.
But the judgment of the gentle he will bring out into the open.
The Table and the Deep
16 And beyond that, he enticed you out of the mouth of an enemy;
there is the deep, and a flood pouring down beneath it,
and your table came down laden with rich food.
17 Judgment will not fall short for the righteous,
18 but there will be anger against the ungodly
for the ungodliness of the gifts they took for their wrongdoing.
19 Do not let your mind turn you aside of its own will
from the plea of the powerless in their need,
or from any of those who hold on to strength.
20 Do not drag the night out,
so that peoples come up in their place.
21 But take care that you do nothing out of place,
for this is what you chose instead of poverty.
Great Beyond Knowing
22 See, the Strong One will show his power in his strength;
who is a sovereign to match him?
23 And who is it that examines his works?
Or who has ever said, “He has done wrong”?
24 Remember that his works are great,
greater than anything men have set their hand to.
25 Every man has seen in himself
how many mortals go about wounded.
26 See, the Strong One is great, and we will never know him;
the number of his years has no end.
27 The drops of rain are counted out by him,
and they will be poured into a cloud as rain.
28 The ancient skies will run with water,
and the clouds have thrown their shade over mortals past counting.
He set a season for the cattle,
and they know the order of their lying down.
29 At all of this, is your mind not shaken out of itself?
Does your heart not go out of your body?
And if a man did understand the spreading out of a cloud,
the even measure of his tent —
30 see, he stretches his light out over it,
and he has covered the roots of the sea.
31 For by these things he will judge peoples;
he will give food to the one who is strong.
32 He has covered the light over with his hands
and given orders about it to what comes to meet it.
33 He will tell his friend about it —
what he has gained, and about wrongdoing too.