man is like Job,
Who drinks mockery like water;
8Who makes common cause with evildoers,
And goes with wicked men?
9For he says, “Man gains nothing
When he is in God’s favor.”
10Therefore, men of understanding, listen to me;
Wickedness be far from God,
Wrongdoing, from Shaddai!
11For He pays a man according to his actions,
And provides for him according to his conduct;
12For God surely does not act wickedly;
Shaddai does not pervert justice.
13Who placed the earth in His charge?
Who ordered the entire world?
14If He but intends it,
He can call back His spirit and breath;
15All flesh would at once expire,
And mankind return to dust.
16If you would understand, listen to this;
Give ear to what I say.
17Would one who hates justice govern?
Would you condemn the Just Mighty One?
18Would you call a king a scoundrel,
Great men, wicked?
19He is not partial to princes;
The noble are not preferred to the wretched;
For all of them are the work of His hands.
20Some die suddenly in the middle of the night;
People are in turmoil and pass on;
Even great men are removed—not by human hands.
21For His eyes are upon a man’s ways;
He observes his every step.
22Neither darkness nor gloom offers
A hiding-place for evildoers.
23He has no set time for man
To appear before God in judgment.
24He shatters mighty men without number
And sets others in their place.
25Truly, He knows their deeds;
Night is over, and they are crushed.
26He strikes them down with the wicked
Where people can see,
27Because they have been disloyal to Him
And have not understood any of His ways;
28Thus He lets the cry of the poor come before Him;
He listens to the cry of the needy.
29When He is silent, who will condemn?
If He hides His face, who will see Him,
Be it nation or man?
30The impious man rule no more,
Nor do those who ensnare the people.
31Has he said to God,
“I will bear [my punishment] and offend no more.
32What I cannot see You teach me.
If I have done iniquity, I shall not do so again”?
33Should He requite as you see fit?
But you have despised [Him]!
You must decide, not I;
Speak what you know.
34Men of understanding say to me,
Wise men who hear me,
35“Job does not speak with knowledge;
His words lack understanding.”
36Would that Job were tried to the limit
For answers which befit sinful men.
37He adds to his sin;
He increases his transgression among us;
He multiplies his statements against God.
35
Elihu said in reply:
2Do you think it just
To say, “I am right against God”?
3If you ask how it benefits you,
“What have I gained from not sinning?”
4I shall give you a reply,
You, along with your friends.
5Behold the heavens and see;
Look at the skies high above you.
6If you sin, what do you do to Him?
If your transgressions are many,
How do you affect Him?
7If you are righteous,
What do you give Him;
What does He receive from your hand?
8Your wickedness affects men like yourself;
Your righteousness, mortals.
9Because of contention the oppressed cry out;
They shout because of the power of the great.
10But none says, “Where is my God, my Maker,
Who gives strength in the night;
11Who gives us more knowledge than the beasts of the earth,
Makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?”
12Then they cry out, but He does not respond
Because of the arrogance of evil men.
13Surely it is false that God does not listen,
That Shaddai does not take note of it.
14Though you say, “You do not take note of it,”
The case is before Him;
So wait for Him.
15a-But since now it does not seem so,
He vents his anger;
He does not realize that it may be long drawn out.-a
16Hence Job mouths empty words,
And piles up words without knowledge.
36
Then Elihu spoke once more.
2Wait a little and let me hold forth;
There is still more to say for God.
3I will make my opinions widely known;
I will justify my Maker.
4In truth, my words are not false;
A man of sound opinions is before you.
5See, God is mighty; He is not contemptuous;
He is mighty in strength and mind.
6He does not let the wicked live;
He grants justice to the lowly,
7He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous;
With kings on thrones
He seats them forever, and they are exalted.
8If they are bound in shackles
And caught in trammels of affliction,
9He declares to them what they have done,
And that their transgressions are excessive;
10He opens their understanding by discipline,
And orders them back from mischief.
11If they will serve obediently,
They shall spend their days in happiness,
Their years in delight.
12But if they are not obedient,
They shall perish by the sword,
Die for lack of understanding.
13But the impious in heart become enraged;
They do not cry for help when He afflicts them.
14They die in their youth;
[Expire] among the depraved.
15He rescues the lowly from their affliction,
And opens their understanding through distress.
16Indeed, He draws you away from the brink of distress
To a broad place where there is no constraint;
Your table is laid out with rich food.
17You are obsessed with the case of the wicked man,
But the justice of the case will be upheld.
18Let anger at his affluence not mislead you;
Let much bribery not turn you aside.
19a-Will your limitless wealth avail you,-a
All your powerful efforts?
20Do not long for the night
When peoples vanish where they are.
21Beware! Do not turn to mischief;
Because of that you have been tried by affliction.
22See, God is beyond reach in His power;
Who governs like Him?
23Who ever reproached Him for His conduct?
Who ever said, “You have done wrong”?
24Remember, then, to magnify His work,
Of which men have sung,
25Which all men have beheld,
Men have seen, from a distance.
26See, God is greater than we can know;
The number of His years cannot be counted.
27He forms the droplets of water,
Which cluster into rain, from His mist.
28The skies rain;
They pour down on all mankind.
29Can one, indeed, contemplate the expanse of clouds,
The thunderings from His pavilion?
30See, He spreads His lightning over it;
It fills the bed of the sea.
31By these things He controls peoples;
He gives food in abundance.
32Lightning fills His hands;
He orders it to hit the mark.
33Its noise tells of Him.
a-The kindling of anger against iniquity.-a
37
Because of this, too, my heart quakes,
And leaps from its place.
2Just listen to the noise of His rumbling,
To the sound that comes out of His mouth.
3He lets it loose beneath the entire heavens—
His lightning, to the ends of the earth.
4After it, He lets out a roar;
He thunders in His majestic voice.
No one can find a trace of it by the time His voice is heard.
5God thunders marvelously with His voice;
He works wonders that we cannot understand.
6He commands the snow, “Fall to the ground!”
And the downpour of rain, His mighty downpour of rain,
7Is as a sign on every man’s hand,
That all men may know His doings.
8Then the beast enters its lair,
And remains in its den.
9The storm wind comes from its chamber,
And the cold from the constellations.
10By the breath of God ice is formed,
And the expanse of water becomes solid.
11He also loads the clouds with moisture
And scatters His lightning-clouds.
12a-He keeps turning events by His stratagems,-a
That they might accomplish all that He commands them
Throughout the inhabited earth,
13Causing each of them to happen to His land,
Whether as a scourge or as a blessing.
14Give ear to this, Job;
Stop to consider the marvels of God.
15Do you know what charge God lays upon them
When His lightning-clouds shine?
16Do you know the marvels worked upon the expanse of clouds
By Him whose understanding is perfect,
17a-Why your clothes become hot-a
When the land is becalmed by the south wind?
18Can you help him stretch out the heavens,
Firm as a mirror of cast metal?
19Inform us, then, what we may say to Him;
We cannot argue because [we are in] darkness.
20Is anything conveyed to Him when I speak?
Can a man say anything when he is confused?
21Now, then, one cannot see the sun,
Though it be bright in the heavens,
Until the wind comes and clears them [of clouds].
22By the north wind the golden rays emerge;
The splendor about God is awesome.
23Shaddai—we cannot attain to Him;
He is great in power and justice
And abundant in righteousness; He does not torment.
24Therefore, men are in awe of Him
Whom none of the wise can perceive.
38
Then the LORD replied to Job out of the tempest and said:
2Who is this who darkens counsel,
Speaking without knowledge?
3Gird your loins like a man;
I will ask and you will inform Me.
4Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?
Speak if you have understanding.
5Do you know who fixed its dimensions
Or who measured it with a line?
6Onto what were its bases sunk?
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Who set its cornerstone
7When the morning stars sang together
And all the divine beings shouted for joy?
8Who closed the sea behind doors
When it gushed forth out of the womb,
9When I clothed it in clouds,
Swaddled it in dense clouds,
10When I made breakers My limit for it,
And set up its bar and doors,
11And said, “You may come so far and no farther;
Here your surging waves will stop”?
12Have you ever commanded the day to break,
Assigned the dawn its place,
13So that it seizes the corners of the earth
And shakes the wicked out of it?
14It changes like clay under the seal
Till [its hues] are fixed like those of a garment.
15Their light is withheld from the wicked,
And the upraised arm is broken.
16Have you penetrated to the sources of the sea,
Or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17Have the gates of death been disclosed to you?
Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18Have you surveyed the expanses of the earth?
If you know of these—tell Me.
19Which path leads to where light dwells,
And where is the place of darkness,
20That you may take it to its domain
And know the way to its home?
21Surely you know, for you were born then,
And the number of your years is many!
22Have you penetrated the vaults of snow,
Seen the vaults of hail,
23Which I have put aside for a time of adversity,
For a day of war and battle?
24By what path is the west winda dispersed,
The east wind scattered over the earth?
25Who cut a channel for the torrents
And a path for the thunderstorms,
26To rain down on uninhabited land,
On the wilderness where no man is,
27To saturate the desolate wasteland,
And