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34Then Elihu continued and said: ²“Hear my words, you wise men, and give ear to me, you who know; ³for the ear tests words as the palate tastes food. ⁴Let us choose what is right; let us determine among ourselves what is good. ⁵For Job has said, ‘I am innocent, and God has taken away my right; ⁶in spite of being right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’ ⁷Who is there like Job, who drinks up scoffing like water, ⁸who goes in company with evildoers and walks with the wicked? ⁹For he has said, ‘It profits one nothing to take delight in God.’

¹⁰“Therefore, hear me, you who have sense, far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. ¹¹For according to their deeds he will repay them, and according to their ways he will make it befall them. ¹²Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice. ¹³Who gave him charge over the earth and who laid on him the whole world? ¹⁴If he should take back his spirit to himself, and gather to himself his breath, ¹⁵all flesh would perish together, and all mortals return to dust.

¹⁶“If you have understanding, hear this; listen to what I say. ¹⁷Shall one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn one who is righteous and mighty, ¹⁸who says to a king, ‘You scoundrel!’ and to princes, ‘You wicked men!’; ¹⁹who shows no partiality to nobles, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands? ²⁰In a moment they die; at midnight the people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away by no human hand. ²¹“For his eyes are upon the ways of mortals, and he sees all their steps. ²²There is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves. ²³For he has not appointed a time for anyone to go before God in judgment. ²⁴He shatters the mighty without investigation, and sets others in their place. ²⁵Thus, knowing their works, he overturns them in the night, and they are crushed. ²⁶He strikes them for their wickedness while others look on, ²⁷because they turned aside from following him, and had no regard for any of his ways, ²⁸so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him, and he heard the cry of the afflicted— ²⁹When he is quiet, who can condemn? When he hides his face, who can behold him, whether it be a nation or an individual?— ³⁰so that the godless should not reign, or those who ensnare the people.

³¹“For has anyone said to God, ‘I have endured punishment; I will not offend any more; ³²teach me what I do not see; if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’? ³³Will he then pay back to suit you, because you reject it? For you must choose, and not I; therefore declare what you know. ³⁴Those who have sense will say to me, and the wise who hear me will say, ³⁵‘Job speaks without knowledge, his words are without insight.’ ³⁶Would that Job were tried to the limit, because his answers are those of the wicked. ³⁷For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God.”

35Elihu continued and said: ²“Do you think this to be just? You say, ‘I am in the right before God.’ ³If you ask, ‘What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?’ ⁴I will answer you and your friends with you. ⁵Look at the heavens and see; observe the clouds, which are higher than you. ⁶If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? ⁷If you are righteous, what do you give to him; or what does he receive from your hand? ⁸Your 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. ¹⁰But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives strength in the night, ¹¹who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’ ¹²There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evildoers. ¹³Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it.

¹⁴How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him! ¹⁵And now, because his anger does not punish, and he does not greatly heed transgression, ¹⁶Job opens his mouth in empty talk, he multiplies words without knowledge.”

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. ³I will bring my knowledge from far away, and ascribe righteousness to my Maker. ⁴For 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. ⁶He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives the afflicted their right. ⁷He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne he sets them forever, and they are exalted. ⁸And if they are bound in fetters and caught in the cords of affliction, ⁹then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly. ¹⁰He opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity. ¹¹If they listen, and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness. ¹²But 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. ¹⁴They die in their youth, and their life ends in shame.

¹⁵He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear by adversity. ¹⁶He 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; judgment and justice seize you. ¹⁸Beware that wrath does not entice you into scoffing, and do not let the greatness of the ransom turn you aside. ¹⁹Will your cry avail to keep you from distress, or will all the force of your strength? ²⁰Do not long for the night, when peoples are cut off in their place. ²¹Beware! Do not turn to iniquity; because of that you have been tried by affliction. ²²See, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him? ²³Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?

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

37“At this also my heart trembles, and leaps out of its place. ²Listen, listen to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth. ³Under the whole heaven he lets it loose, and his lightning to the corners of the earth. ⁴After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard. ⁵God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend.

⁶For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth’; and the shower of rain, his heavy shower of rain, ⁷serves as a sign on everyone’s hand, so that all whom he has made may know it. ⁸Then the animals go into their lairs and remain in their dens. ⁹From its chamber comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds. ¹⁰By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast. ¹¹He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning. ¹²They turn round and round by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. ¹³Whether for correction, or for his land, or for love, he causes it to happen.

¹⁴“Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God. ¹⁵Do you know how God lays his command upon them, and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine? ¹⁶Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of the one whose knowledge is perfect, ¹⁷you whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind? ¹⁸Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror? ¹⁹Teach us what we shall say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of darkness. ²⁰Should he be told that I want to speak? Did anyone ever wish to be swallowed up?

²¹Now, no one can look on the light when it is bright in the skies, when the wind has passed and cleared them. ²²Out of the north comes golden splendor; around God is awesome majesty. ²³The Almighty—we cannot find him; he is great in power and justice, and abundant righteousness he will not violate. ²⁴Therefore mortals fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”