Job 34

¹Then Elihu answered and said:

²“Hear my words, you wise men,
and give ear to me, you who know;

³for the ear tests words
as the palate tastes food.

⁴Let us choose what is right;
let us know among ourselves what is good.

⁵For Job has said, ‘I am in the right,
and God has taken away my right;

⁶in spite of my right I am counted a liar;
my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’

⁷What man is like Job,
who drinks up scoffing like water,

⁸who travels in company with evildoers
and walks with wicked men?

⁹For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing
that he should take delight in God.’

¹⁰“Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding:
far be it from God that he should do wickedness,
and from the Almighty that he should do wrong.

¹¹For according to the work of a man he will repay him,
and according to his ways he will make it befall him.

¹²Of a truth, God will not do wickedly,
and the Almighty will not pervert justice.

¹³Who gave him charge over the earth,
and who laid on him the whole world?

¹⁴If he should set his heart to it
and gather to himself his spirit and his breath,

¹⁵all flesh would perish together,
and man would return to dust.

¹⁶“If you have understanding, hear this;
listen to what I say.

¹⁷ Shall one who hates justice govern?
Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty,

¹⁸who says to a king, ‘Worthless one,’
and to nobles, ‘Wicked man,’

¹⁹who shows no partiality to princes,
nor regards the rich more than the poor,
for they are all the work of his hands?

²⁰In a moment they die;
at midnight the people are shaken and pass away,
and the mighty are taken away by no human hand.

²¹“For his eyes are on the ways of a man,
and he sees all his steps.

²²There is no gloom or deep darkness
where evildoers may hide themselves.

²³For God has no need to consider a man further,
that he should go before God in judgment.

²⁴He shatters the mighty without investigation
and sets others in their place.

²⁵Thus, knowing their works,
he overturns them in the night, and they are crushed.

²⁶He strikes them for their wickedness
in a place for all to see,

²⁷because they turned aside from following him
and had no regard for any of his ways,

²⁸so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him,
and he heard the cry of the afflicted—

²⁹When he is quiet, who can condemn?
When he hides his face, who can behold him,
whether it be a nation or a man?—

³⁰that a godless man should not reign,
that he should not ensnare the people.

³¹“For has anyone said to God,
‘I have borne punishment; I will not offend any more;

³² teach me what I do not see;
if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’?

³³Will he then make repayment to suit you,
because you reject it?
For you must choose, and not I;
therefore declare what you know.

³⁴Men of understanding will say to me,
and the wise man who hears me will say:

³⁵‘Job speaks without knowledge;
his words are without insight.’

³⁶Would that Job were tried to the end,
because he answers like wicked men.

³⁷For he adds rebellion to his sin;
he claps his hands among us
and multiplies his words against God.”

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