Job / Elihu's Intervention: Rebuke and Praise of God's Majesty (part 3)

Elihu's Intervention: Rebuke and Praise of God's Majesty (part 3)

Job 34:34-36:24

Chapter 34

³⁴ Men of heart will say to me, and a wise fighting man will hear me. ³⁵ Job does not speak with skilled knowledge, and his words are not with wisdom. ³⁶ My father, test Job as witness to triumph over your ceasing in the men of the North. ³⁷ For he adds transgression to his sin offering; among us he claps and multiplies his words to God.

Chapter 35

¹ Then Elihu answered and said: ² Is this right for God? You think it is just. You say, "My righteousness is from God." ³ For you say, "What does it profit you? What do I gain from my sin offering?" ⁴ I will return your words to you, and your companions with you. ⁵ Look at the heavens and see, and gaze at the skies—its height is above you. ⁶ If you sin, what will you do to him? And if your transgressions are many, what will you do to him? ⁷ If you are righteous, what will you give him? Or what will he take from your hand? ⁸ Your wickedness is to a man like you, and your righteousness to a son of Adam. ⁹ Because of the multitude of oppressed people, they cry out; they cry for deliverance, their salvation from the arm of the mighty. ¹⁰ But he does not say that God makes them give songs in the night. ¹¹ It teaches us from the beasts of the earth and from the birds of the heavens; it makes us wise. ¹² There they cry out, but he does not answer because of the pride of the wicked. ¹³ Surely God will not hear in vain, and Shaddai will not straighten it. ¹⁴ Even though you say, "We will not see him," judgment is before his face, and you wait for him. ¹⁵ And now, because he has not visited in his anger and has not paid much attention to transgression. ¹⁶ And Job multiplies words without knowledge. He opens his mouth in vanity.

Chapter 36

¹ And Elihu continued and said. ² Wait for me a little, and I will show you, for there are yet words for God. ³ I will bear my knowledge from afar, and to my Maker I will give righteousness. ⁴ For indeed, my tongue does not lie; one who is perfect in knowledge is with you. ⁵ Behold—God is mighty, and he does not reject a mighty heart of power. ⁶ He does not let the wicked dwell, and he gives judgment to the poor. ⁷ He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, and he seats kings on a throne forever and exalts them. ⁸ And if they are bound in fetters, they are captured in the cords of poverty. ⁹ And he declares to them their deed and their transgressions, for they have become mighty. ¹⁰ And he reveals their ear to discipline, and he says, "For they will dwell in a divine dwelling." ¹¹ If they listen and serve, they will spend their days in good and their years in pleasant ones. ¹² And if they do not hear or obey when sent, they will pass away and die like bonds of knowledge. ¹³ And the godless hypocrites of heart—they establish anger; they will not be divinely rescued, for he has bound them. ¹⁴ Their soul dies in youth, and their life among the holy ones. ¹⁵ He delivers the afflicted in their affliction, and he reveals their ear in distress. ¹⁶ And he also acted treacherously with you from the mouth of distress—a broad place not constricted beneath it—and repose of your table full of fatness. ¹⁷ And you have filled the judgment of the wicked; judgment and justice will support you. ¹⁸ For wrath—lest it entice you into excess, and let not the abundance of ransom sway you. ¹⁹ Will he not value your cry in Affliction or all forces of strength? ²⁰ Do not desire the night, you peoples under it. ²¹ Take care—do not turn to iniquity, for you have chosen it rather than affliction. ²² Behold—God exalts by his power; who like him teaches? ²³ Who has appointed his way over him, and who has said, "She has done injustice"? ²⁴ Remember that you err in his work, which men have praised.