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Job 36 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Elihu Extols God’s Greatness

Job 36:1And Elihu continued, and said:
Job 36:2“Bear with me a little, and I will show you,
for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf.
Job 36:3I will get my knowledge from afar
and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
Job 36:4For truly my words are not false;
one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
Job 36:5“Behold, God is mighty, and does not despise any;
he is mighty in strength of understanding.
Job 36:6He does not keep the wicked alive,
but gives the afflicted their right.
Job 36:7He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous,
but with kings on the throne
he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
Job 36:8And if they are bound in chains
and caught in the cords of affliction,
Job 36:9then he declares to them their work
and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.
Job 36:10He opens their ears to instruction
and commands that they return from iniquity.
Job 36:11If they listen and serve him,
they complete their days in prosperity,
and their years in pleasantness.
Job 36:12But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword
and die without knowledge.
Job 36:13“The godless in heart cherish anger;
they do not cry for help when he binds them.
Job 36:14They die in youth,
and their life ends among the cult prostitutes.
Job 36:15He delivers the afflicted by their affliction
and opens their ear by adversity.
Job 36:16He also allured you out of distress
into a broad place where there was no cramping,
and what was set on your table was full of fatness.
Job 36:17“But you are full of the judgment on the wicked;
judgment and justice seize you.
Job 36:18Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing,
and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.
Job 36:19Will your cry for help avail to keep you from distress,
or all the force of your strength?
Job 36:20Do not long for the night,
when peoples vanish in their place.
Job 36:21Take care; do not turn to iniquity,
for this you have chosen rather than affliction.
Job 36:22Behold, God is exalted in his power;
who is a teacher like him?
Job 36:23Who has prescribed for him his way,
or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?
Job 36:24“Remember to extol his work,
of which men have sung.
Job 36:25All mankind has looked on it;
man beholds it from afar.
Job 36:26Behold, God is great, and we know him not;
the number of his years is unsearchable.
Job 36:27For he draws up the drops of water;
they distill his mist in rain,
Job 36:28which the skies pour down
and drop on mankind abundantly.
Job 36:29Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds,
the thunderings of his pavilion?
Job 36:30Behold, he scatters his lightning about him
and covers the roots of the sea.
Job 36:31For by these he judges peoples;
he gives food in abundance.
Job 36:32He covers his hands with the lightning
and commands it to strike the mark.
Job 36:33Its crashing declares his presence;[fn]
the cattle also declare that he rises.
ESV Footnotes
Hebrew declares concerning him
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