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32So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. ²Then Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became angry. He was angry at Job because he justified himself rather than God; ³he was angry also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, though they had declared Job to be in the wrong. ⁴Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were older than he. ⁵But when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouths of these three men, he became angry.

⁶Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite answered: “I am young in years, and you are aged; therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you. ⁷I said, ‘Let days speak, and many years teach wisdom.’ ⁸But truly it is the spirit in a mortal, the breath of the Almighty, that makes for understanding. ⁹It is not the old that are wise, nor the aged that understand what is right. ¹⁰Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me; let me also declare my opinion.’ ¹¹“See, I waited for your words, I listened for your wise sayings, while you searched out what to say. ¹²I gave you my attention, but there was in fact no one that confuted Job, no one among you that answered his words. ¹³Yet do not say, ‘We have found wisdom; God may vanquish him, not a human.’ ¹⁴He has not directed his words against me, and I will not answer him with your speeches.

¹⁵“They are dismayed, they answer no more; they have not a word to say. ¹⁶And am I to wait, because they do not speak, because they stand there, and answer no more? ¹⁷I also will give my answer; I also will declare my opinion. ¹⁸For I am full of words; the spirit within me constrains me. ¹⁹My heart is indeed like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins, it is ready to burst. ²⁰I must speak, so that I may find relief; I must open my lips and answer. ²¹I will not show partiality to any person or use flattery toward anyone. ²²For I do not know how to flatter— or my Maker would soon put an end to me!

33“But now, hear my speech, O Job, and listen to all my words. ²See, I open my mouth; the tongue in my mouth speaks. ³My words declare the uprightness of my heart, and what my lips know they speak sincerely. ⁴The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. ⁵Answer me, if you can; set your words in order before me; take your stand. ⁶See, before God I am as you are; I too was formed from a piece of clay. ⁷No fear of me need terrify you; my pressure will not be heavy on you.

⁸“Surely, you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard the sound of your words. ⁹You say, ‘I am clean, without transgression; I am pure, and there is no iniquity in me. ¹⁰Look, he finds occasions against me, he counts me as his enemy; ¹¹he puts my feet in the stocks, and watches all my paths.’ ¹²“But in this you are not right. I will answer you: God is greater than any mortal. ¹³Why do you contend against him, saying, ‘He will answer none of my words’?

¹⁴For God speaks in one way, and in two, though people do not perceive it. ¹⁵In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on mortals, while they slumber on their beds, ¹⁶then he opens their ears, and terrifies them with warnings, ¹⁷that he may turn them aside from their deeds, and keep them from pride, ¹⁸to spare their souls from the Pit, their lives from traversing the River.

¹⁹They are also chastened with pain upon their beds, and with continual strife in their bones, ²⁰so that their lives loathe bread, and their appetites dainty food. ²¹Their flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen; and their bones, once invisible, now stick out. ²²Their souls draw near the Pit, and their lives to those who bring death. ²³Then, if there should be for one of them an angel, a mediator, one of a thousand, one who declares a person upright, ²⁴and he is gracious to that person, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down into the Pit; I have found a ransom; ²⁵let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor.’ ²⁶Then he prays to God, and is accepted by him, he comes into his presence with joy, and God repays him for his righteousness. ²⁷That person sings to others and says, ‘I sinned, and perverted what was right, and it was not paid back to me. ²⁸He has redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit, and my life shall see the light.’

²⁹“God indeed does all these things, twice, three times, with mortals, ³⁰to bring back their souls from the Pit, so that they may see the light of life. ³¹Pay heed, Job, listen to me; be silent, and I will speak. ³²If you have anything to say, answer me; speak, for I desire to justify you. ³³If not, listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”

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.”