God tests humans to correct them
1 Elihu proceeded further:
2 Bear with me a little and I will explain,
for I have more to say on God’s behalf.
3 I will spread my knowledge afar
to do justice to my Maker.
4 Be assured that my words are not false,
for you have before you an enlightened man.
5 God is mighty indeed
but he does not despise the pure of heart.
6 He cuts off the power of the sinner
and restores the right of the op pressed,
7 he does not forsake their claim.
He sets kings on their thrones
and makes them firm forever.
But if they raise themselves in pride,
8 he has them bound with fetters
and held fast by bonds of affliction.
9 Then he tells them what they have done,
all their sins and arrogance.
10 He opens their ears to correction
and exhorts them to repentance.
11 If they obey and serve him,
they spend their days in prosperity
and their years in contentment.
12 But if they do not listen, they go to the grave:
knowledge would have saved them.
13 These hypocrites harbor resentment:
they do not pray for help in their bonds,
14 therefore they die in their youth
and perish among the reprobate.
15 God saves the wretched through their suffering,
God instructs the unfortunate.
16 In like manner, he brings you from distress
to a free and broad space,
to a table filled with rich food.
17 Then you will judge the wicked;
justice and judgment will be yours.
18 Take care lest you be seduced by generosity;
do not yield to arrogance, bribery and corruption.
19 Your wealth and all your mighty efforts
will not bail you out of distress.
20 Do not long for the coming of night
to drag people away from their homes.
21 Beware of turning to iniquity;
because of it you have been tried by affliction.
A hymn to God’s greatness
22 God is exalted in his power.
What teacher is there like him?
23 Who has prescribed his ways for him,
or said to him that he has done wrong?
24 Remember to extol his work,
of which many have sung.
25 Everyone has seen it;
all gaze on it from afar.
26 God is great beyond our understanding;
the number of his years is past reckoning.
27 He holds in check the waterdrops
which distill from the mist as rain,
28 then the clouds pour them down
and drop them upon the earth as showers.
31 This is the way he nourishes the land
that provides food in abundance.
29 Who can understand how he spreads the clouds,
how he thunders from his pavilion?
30 He unfurls his mists
and covers the expanse of the sea.
32 With both hands he lifts up lightning
and commands it to strike the target.
33 His thunder warns the shepherd
and the flock senses the tempest.
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Comments Job, Chapter 36
• 36.22 This second poem on the greatness of God concludes Elihu’s speech es just as the poem of the miners concluded the discourses of Job’s three friends.