Chapter 36

¹And Elihu proceeded and said, ²Suffer me a little, and I will shew thee that I have yet words for +God. ³I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Creator. ⁴For truly my words shall be no falsehood: one perfect in knowledge is with thee. ⁵Lo, God is mighty, but despiseth not [any]; mighty in strength of understanding: ⁶He saveth not the wicked alive; but he doeth justice to the afflicted. ⁷He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne doth he even set them for ever; and they are exalted. ⁸And if, bound in fetters, they be held in cords of affliction, ⁹Then he sheweth them their work, and their transgressions, because they have increased. ¹⁰And he openeth their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity. ¹¹If they hearken and serve [him], they shall accomplish their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. ¹²But if they hearken not, they shall pass away by the sword, and expire without knowledge. ¹³But the godless in heart heap up anger; they cry not when he bindeth them: ¹⁴Their soul dieth in youth, and their life is among the unclean. ¹⁵But he delivereth the afflicted in his affliction, and openeth their ear in [their] oppression. ¹⁶Even so would he have allured thee out of the jaws of distress into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and the supply of thy table [would be] full of fatness. ¹⁷But thou art full of the judgments of the wicked: judgment and justice take hold [on thee]. ¹⁸Because there is wrath, [beware] lest it take thee away through chastisement: then a great ransom could not avail thee. ¹⁹Will he esteem thy riches? Not gold, nor all the resources of strength! ²⁰Desire not the night, when peoples are cut off from their place. ²¹Take heed, turn not to iniquity; for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction. ²²Lo, God is exalted in his power: who teacheth as he? ²³Who hath appointed him his way? or who hath said, Thou hast wrought unrighteousness? ²⁴Remember that thou magnify his work, which men celebrate. ²⁵All men look at it; man beholdeth [it] afar off. ²⁶Lo, God is great, and we comprehend [him] not, neither can the number of his years be searched out. ²⁷For he draweth up the drops of water: they distil in rain from the vapour which he formeth, ²⁸Which the skies pour down [and] drop upon man abundantly. ²⁹But can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, [or] the crashing of his pavilion? ³⁰Lo, he spreadeth his light around him, and covereth the bottom of the sea. ³¹For with them he judgeth the peoples; he giveth food in abundance. ³²[His] hands he covereth with lightning, and commandeth it where it is to strike. ³³His thundering declareth concerning him; the cattle even, concerning its coming.