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Elihu Condemns Self-Righteousness

35Elihu continued and said:
² ‘Do you think this to be just?
   You say, “I am in the right before God.”
³ If you ask, “What advantage have I?
   How am I better off than if I had sinned?”
⁴ I will answer you
   and your friends with you.
⁵ Look at the heavens and see;
   observe the clouds, which are higher than you.
⁶ If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him?
   And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
⁷ If you are righteous, what do you give to him;
   or what does he receive from your hand?
⁸ Your wickedness affects others like you,
   and your righteousness, other human beings.

⁹ ‘Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out;
   they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.
¹⁰ But no one says, “Where is God my Maker,
   who gives strength in the night,
¹¹ who teaches us more than the animals of the earth,
   and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?”
¹² There they cry out, but he does not answer,
   because of the pride of evildoers.
¹³ Surely God does not hear an empty cry,
   nor does the Almighty^* regard it.
¹⁴ How much less when you say that you do not see him,
   that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!
¹⁵ And now, because his anger does not punish,
   and he does not greatly heed transgression,^*
16 Job opens his mouth in empty talk,
   he multiplies words without knowledge.’

Elihu Exalts God’s Goodness

36Elihu continued and said:
² ‘Bear with me a little, and I will show you,
   for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf.
³ I will bring my knowledge from far away,
   and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
⁴ For truly my words are not false;
   one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

⁵ ‘Surely God is mighty and does not despise any;
   he is mighty in strength of understanding.
⁶ He does not keep the wicked alive,
   but gives the afflicted their right.
⁷ He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous,
   but with kings on the throne
   he sets them for ever, and they are exalted.
⁸ And if they are bound in fetters
   and caught in the cords of affliction,
⁹ then he declares to them their work
   and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.
¹⁰ He opens their ears to instruction,
   and commands that they return from iniquity.
¹¹ If they listen, and serve him,
   they complete their days in prosperity,
   and their years in pleasantness.
¹² But if they do not listen, they shall perish by the sword,
   and die without knowledge.

¹³ ‘The godless in heart cherish anger;
   they do not cry for help when he binds them.
¹⁴ They die in their youth,
   and their life ends in shame.^*
15 He delivers the afflicted by their affliction,
   and opens their ear by adversity.
¹⁶ He also allured you out of distress
   into a broad place where there was no constraint,
   and what was set on your table was full of fatness.

¹⁷ ‘But you are obsessed with the case of the wicked;
   judgement and justice seize you.
¹⁸ Beware that wrath does not entice you into scoffing,
   and do not let the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.
¹⁹ Will your cry avail to keep you from distress,
   or will all the force of your strength?
²⁰ Do not long for the night,
   when peoples are cut off in their place.
²¹ Beware! Do not turn to iniquity;
   because of that you have been tried by affliction.
²² See, 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”?

Elihu Proclaims God’s Majesty

²⁴ ‘Remember to extol his work,
   of which mortals have sung.
²⁵ All people have looked on it;
   everyone watches it from far away.
²⁶ Surely God is great, and we do not know him;
   the number of his years is unsearchable.
²⁷ For he draws up the drops of water;
   he distils^* his mist in rain,
²⁸ which the skies pour down
   and drop upon mortals abundantly.
²⁹ Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds,
   the thunderings of his pavilion?
³⁰ See, he scatters his lightning around him
   and covers the roots of the sea.
³¹ For by these he governs peoples;
   he gives food in abundance.
³² He covers his hands with the lightning,
   and commands it to strike the mark.
³³ Its crashing^* tells about him;
   he is jealous^* with anger against iniquity.