Overview
In his fourth and final speech, Elihu claims wisdom from a transcendent source, contrasts the fates of those who harden their hearts against God with those who receive suffering as a redemptive channel, warns Job directly against bitterness and the spiritual dangers of resentment, proclaims God's absolute sovereignty as beyond human judgment, and closes with a lyrical meditation on storm, rain, and lightning as witnesses to a divine majesty that surpasses all mortal comprehension.
Passages
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Job 36
1Elihu also continued, and said,
2“Bear with me a little, and I will show you; for I still have something to say on God’s behalf.
3I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
4For truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
5“Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding.
6He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked, but gives justice to the afflicted.
7He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
8If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions,
9then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.
10He also opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity.
11If they listen and serve him, they will spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.
12But if they don’t listen, they will perish by the sword; they will die without knowledge.
13“But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them.
14They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean.
15He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in oppression.
16Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a wide place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.
17“But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you.
18Don’t let riches entice you to wrath, neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.
19Would your wealth sustain you in distress, or all the might of your strength?
20Don’t desire the night, when people are cut off in their place.
21Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction.
22Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?
23Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness’?
24“Remember that you magnify his work, about which men have sung.
25All men have looked on it. Man sees it afar off.
26Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.
27For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor,
28which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly.
29Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunderings of his pavilion?
30Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea.
31For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance.
32He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark.
33Its noise tells about him, and the livestock also, concerning the storm that comes up.