Job

36 And Elihu added and said:—

2 Restrain thyself for me a little and I will shew thee, That yet—for God there is justification.

3 I will bring my knowledge from afar, And to my Maker will I attribute righteousness.

4 For of a truth—not false are my words, One of competent knowledge is with thee.

5 Lo! God is mighty, yet will he not despise, Mighty in vigour of mind;

6 He will not keep alive one who is lawless, But the right of oppressed ones will he grant;

7 He will not withdraw—from a righteous one—his eyes,—But with kings on the throne He hath seated men triumphantly and they have been exalted.

8 But if, bound in fetters, They have been captured with cords of affliction

9 Then hath he declared to them their deed, And their transgressions—that they were wont to behave themselves proudly;

10 Thus hath he uncovered their ear to a warning, And said—that they should turn from iniquity.

11 If they would hearken and serve They should complete their days in prosperity, And their years in pleasantness;

12 But if they would not hearken By a weapon should they pass away, And breathe their last, no one knowing.

13 Yea the impious in heart should store up anger, They should not cry for help when he bound them.

14 Their soul should die in youth, And their life among the unclean.

15 He would deliver the humbled in his humiliation, And would uncover—in oppression—their ear.

16 Yea he might even have allured thee—Out of the mouth of straitness, [Into] a wide space—no narrowness there,—And the food set down on thy table should have been full of fatness.

17 But with the plea of a lawless one thou art full, Plea and sentence will take fast hold.

18 Because there is wrath [Beware] lest he take thee away with a stroke, Then let not a great ransom mislead thee.

19 Will he value thy riches? Nay not precious ore, Nor all the forces of strength.

20 Do not pant for the night, When peoples disappear from their place.

21 Beware, do not turn unto iniquity, For this thou hast chosen rather than affliction.

22 Lo God exalteth himself by his strength, Who like him doth teach?

23 Who enjoined on him his way? And who ever said, Thou hast wrought perversity?

24 Remember that thou extol his work, Of which men have sung;

25 Every son of earth hath viewed it, Mortal man looketh at it from afar.

26 Lo God is greater than we can know, The number of his years even past finding out!

27 For he draweth up drops of water, They trickle as rain through his mist;

28 With which the clouds flow down, They drop on man in abundance.

29 But surely none can understand the burstings of the cloud, The crashing of his pavilion!

30 Lo! he hath spread out over it his lightning, The bed of the sea hath he covered.

31 For by those things he executeth judgment on peoples, He giveth food in abundance:

32 Upon both hands he putteth a covering of lightning, And layeth command upon it against an assailant:

33 His rolling thunder telleth concerning him,—The cattle even concerning him that is coming up.