Job

34 Furthermore Elihu responded and said:—

2 Hear, ye wise men, my words, And ye who know give ear unto me;

3 For the ear trieth words, As the palate tasteth in eating.

4 What is right let us choose for ourselves, Let us know among ourselves what is good;

5 For Job hath said—I am righteous, But God hath turned away my right;

6 Concerning mine own right shall I tell a falsehood? Incurable is my disease—not for any transgression.

7 What man is like Job? He drinketh in scoffing like water;

8 And is on the way to keep company with the workers of iniquity, And to walk with lawless men.

9 For he hath said, It profiteth not a man, When his good pleasure is with God.

10 Wherefore, ye men of mind, hearken unto me,—Far be it that God should be lawless, Or the Almighty be perverse!

11 For what any son of earth doeth he repayeth him, And according to every man’s course he causeth him to find.

12 Nay, verily God will not condemn unjustly,—Nor the Almighty pervert justice.

13 Who set him in charge of the earth? Or who appointed [him] the whole world?

14 If he should set against him his heart, His spirit and his inspiration unto himself he should withdraw

15 All flesh together would cease to breathe, And the earth-born unto dust would return.

16 If then [thou hast] understanding hear this, Give thou ear to the teaching of my words:—

17 Shall the very hater of right control? Or the just—the mighty one wilt thou condemn?

18 Doth one say to a king, Abandoned one! Or Lawless one! unto nobles?

19 For he hath shewn no respect of persons unto princes, Neither hath he recognised the rich rather than the poor? For the work of his hands are they all.

20 In a moment they die, even in the middle of the night,—A people are convulsed when they pass away, A mighty one is removed without hand;

21 For his eyes are on the ways of a man, And all his footsteps he beholdeth,—

22 No darkness and no death-shade, Where the workers of iniquity may hide.

23 For unto no man doth he appoint a repetition,—In going unto God in judgment;

24 He shattereth mighty ones unsearchably, And setteth up others in their stead:

25 Therefore he observeth their works,—And overturneth [them] in a night and they are crushed;

26 In the place of lawless men hath he chastised them, In presence of beholders.

27 Forasmuch as they turned from following him, And none of his ways did they teach;

28 Causing to reach him the outcry of the poor, Yea the outcry of the oppressed he heareth.

29 When he giveth quiet who then shall condemn? And when he hideth [his] face who then shall sing of him? Whether unto a nation or unto mankind altogether,

30 That impious men may not reign, Nor be ensnarers of the people.

31 For unto God hath one [ever] said—I have borne punishment, I will not be perverse;

32 What I see not do thou shew me, If perverseness I have wrought I will do it no more?

33 According to thy mind must he requite it that thou hast refused? For thou must choose and not I, What then thou knowest speak!

34 The men of mind will say to me, Yea any wise man hearkening unto me:—

35 Job without knowledge doth speak, And his words are not with discretion.

36 Would that Job might be tested to the uttermost, For replying with the men of iniquity:

37 For he addeth—unto his sin—rebellion, In our midst he clappeth his hands, And multiplieth his sayings against God.