Chapter 34

¹Moreover Elihu answered,

²“Hear my words, you wise men;

Give ear to me, you who have knowledge.

³For the ear tries words,

As the palate tastes food.

⁴Let us choose for us that which is right.

Let us know among ourselves what is good.

⁵For Job has said, ‘I am righteous,

God has taken away my right:

⁶Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar;

My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.’

⁷What man is like Job,

Who drinks scorn like water,

⁸Who goes in company with the workers of iniquity,

And walks with wicked men?

⁹For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing

That he should delight himself with God.’

¹⁰“Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding:

Far be it from God, that he should do wickedness,

From the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.

¹¹For the work of a man he will render to him,

And cause every man to find according to his ways.

¹²Yes surely, God will not do wickedly,

Neither will the Almighty pervert justice.

¹³Who gave him a charge over the earth?

Or who has appointed him over the whole world?

¹⁴If he set his heart on himself,

If he gathered to himself his spirit and his breath;

¹⁵All flesh would perish together,

And man would turn again to dust.

¹⁶“If now you have understanding, hear this.

Listen to the voice of my words.

¹⁷Shall even one who hates justice govern?

Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty?„

¹⁸Who says to a king, ‘Vile!’

Or to nobles, ‘Wicked!’

¹⁹Who doesn’t respect the persons of princes,

Nor regards the rich more than the poor;

For they all are the work of his hands.

²⁰In a moment they die, even at midnight;

The people are shaken and pass away,

The mighty are taken away without hand.

²¹“For his eyes are on the ways of a man,

He sees all his goings.

²²There is no darkness, nor thick gloom,

Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.

²³For he doesn’t need to consider a man further,

That he should go before God in judgment.

²⁴He breaks in pieces mighty men in ways past finding out,

And sets others in their place.

²⁵Therefore he takes knowledge of their works.

He overturns them in the night, so that they are destroyed.

²⁶He strikes them as wicked men

In the open sight of others;

²⁷Because they turned aside from following him,

And wouldn’t have regard in any of his ways:

²⁸So that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him,

He heard the cry of the afflicted.

²⁹When he gives quietness, who then can condemn?

When he hides his face, who then can see him?

Alike whether to a nation, or to a man:

³⁰That the godless man may not reign,

That there be no one to ensnare the people.

³¹“For has any said to God,

‘I am guilty, but I will not offend any more.

³²Teach me that which I don’t see.

If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’?

³³Shall his recompense be as you desire, that you refuse it?

For you must choose, and not I.

Therefore speak what you know.

³⁴Men of understanding will tell me,

Yes, every wise man who hears me:

³⁵‘Job speaks without knowledge,

His words are without wisdom.’

³⁶I wish that Job were tried to the end,

Because of his answering like wicked men.

³⁷For he adds rebellion to his sin.

He claps his hands among us,

And multiplies his words against God.”