Job 35-37 (Amplified Bible)

Job 35

 ¹ELIHU SPOKE further [to Job] and said,

    ²Do you think this is your right, or are you saying, My righteousness is more than God's,

    ³That you ask, What advantage have you? How am I profited more than if I had sinned?

    ⁴I will answer you and your companions with you.

    ⁵Look to the heavens and see; and behold the skies which are higher than you.

    ⁶If you have sinned, how does that affect God? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what have you done to Him?

    ⁷If you are righteous, what do you [by that] give God? Or what does He receive from your hand?

    ⁸Your wickedness touches and affects a man such as you are, and your righteousness is for yourself, one of the human race [but it cannot touch God, Who is above such influence].

    ⁹Because of the multitudes of oppressions the people cry out; they cry for help because of the violence of the mighty.

    ¹⁰But no one says, Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs of rejoicing in the night,^(A)

    ¹¹Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?

    ¹²[The people] cry out because of the pride of evil men, but He does not answer.

    ¹³Surely God will refuse to answer [the cry which is] vanity (vain and empty--instead of abiding trust); neither will the Almighty regard it--

    ¹⁴How much less when [missing His righteous judgment on earth] you say that you do not see Him, that your cause is before Him, and you are waiting for Him!

    ¹⁵But now because God has not [speedily] punished in His anger and seems to be unaware of the wrong and oppression [of which a person is guilty],

    ¹⁶Job uselessly opens his mouth and multiplies words without knowledge [drawing the worthless conclusion that the righteous have no more advantage than the wicked].

   

Job 36

 ¹ELIHU PROCEEDED and said,

    ²Bear with me and wait a little longer, and I will show you, for I have something still to say on God's behalf.

    ³I will bring my knowledge from afar and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

    ⁴For truly my words shall not be false; He Who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

    ⁵Behold! God is mighty, and yet despises no one nor regards anything as trivial; He is mighty in power of understanding and heart.

    ⁶He does not prolong the life of the wicked, but gives the needy and afflicted their right.

    ⁷He withdraws not His eyes from the righteous (the upright in right standing with God); but He sets them forever with kings upon the throne, and they are exalted.

    ⁸And if they are bound in fetters [of adversity] and held by cords of affliction,^(B)

    ⁹Then He shows to them [the true character of] their deeds and their transgressions, that they have acted arrogantly [with presumption and self-sufficiency].

    ¹⁰He also opens their ears to instruction and discipline, and commands that they return from iniquity.

    ¹¹If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasantness and joy.

    ¹²But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword [of God's destructive judgments], and they shall die in ignorance of true knowledge.

    ¹³But the godless and profane in heart heap up anger [at the divine discipline]; they do not cry to Him when He binds them [with cords of affliction].^(C)

    ¹⁴They die in youth, and their life perishes among the unclean (those who are sodomites).

    ¹⁵He delivers the afflicted in their affliction and opens their ears [to His voice] in adversity.

    ¹⁶Indeed, God would have allured you out of the mouth of distress into a broad place where there is no situation of perplexity or privation; and that which would be set on your table would be full of fatness.

    ¹⁷But if you [Job] are filled with the judgment of the wicked, judgment and justice will keep hold on you.

    ¹⁸For let not wrath entice you into scorning chastisements; and let not the greatness of the ransom [the suffering, if rightly endured] turn you aside.

    ¹⁹Will your cry be sufficient to keep you from distress, or will all the force of your strength do it?

    ²⁰Desire not the night, when peoples are cut off from their places;

    ²¹Take heed, turn not to iniquity, for this [the iniquity of complaining against God] you have chosen rather than [submission in] affliction.

    ²²Behold, God exalts and does loftily in His power; who is a ruler or a teacher like Him?

    ²³Who has appointed God His way? Or who can say, You have done unrighteousness?

    ²⁴Remember that [by submission] you magnify God's work, of which men have sung.

    ²⁵All men have looked upon God's work; man may behold it afar off.

    ²⁶Behold, God is great, and we know Him not! The number of His years is unsearchable.^(D)

    ²⁷For He draws up the drops of water, which distil as rain from His vapor,

    ²⁸Which the skies pour down and drop abundantly upon [the multitudes of ] mankind.

    ²⁹Not only that, but can anyone understand the spreadings of the clouds or the thunderings of His pavilion?^(E)

    ³⁰Behold, He spreads His lightning against the dark clouds and covers the roots of the sea.

    ³¹For by [His clouds] God executes judgment upon the peoples; He gives food in abundance.

    ³²He covers His hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark.

    ³³His thunderings speak [awesomely] concerning Him; the cattle are told of His coming storm.

   

Job 37

 ¹INDEED, [at His thunderings] my heart also trembles and leaps out of its place.

    ²Hear, oh, hear the roar of His voice and the sound of rumbling that goes out of His mouth!

    ³Under the whole heaven He lets it loose, and His lightning to the ends of the earth.

    ⁴After it His voice roars; He thunders with the voice of His majesty, and He restrains not [His lightnings against His adversaries] when His voice is heard.

    ⁵God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend.

    ⁶For He says to the snow, Fall on the earth; likewise He speaks to the showers and to the downpour of His mighty rains.

    ⁷God seals up (stops, brings to a standstill by severe weather) the hand of every man [and now under His seal their hands are forced to inactivity], that all men whom He has made may know His doings (His sovereign power and their subjection to it).

    ⁸Then the beasts go into dens and remain in their lairs.

    ⁹Out of its chamber comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds.

    ¹⁰By the breath of God ice is given, and the breadth of the waters is frozen over.^(F)

    ¹¹He loads the thick cloud with moisture; He scatters the cloud of His lightning.

    ¹²And it is turned round about by His guidance, that they may do whatever He commands them upon the face of the habitable earth.

    ¹³Whether it be for correction or for His earth [generally] or for His mercy and loving-kindness, He causes it to come.^(G)

    ¹⁴Hear this, O Job; stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.

    ¹⁵Do you know how God lays His command upon them and causes the lightning of His [storm] cloud to shine?

    ¹⁶Do you know how the clouds are balanced [and poised in the heavens], the wonderful works of Him Who is perfect in knowledge?

    ¹⁷[Or] why your garments are hot when He quiets the earth [in sultry summer] with the [oppressive] south wind?

    ¹⁸Can you along with Him spread out the sky, [which is] strong as a molten mirror?

    ¹⁹Tell us [Job] with what words of man we may address such a Being; we cannot state our case because we are in the dark [in the presence of the unsearchable God].

    ²⁰So shall it be told Him that I wish to speak? If a man speaks, shall he be swallowed up?

    ²¹And now men cannot look upon the light when it is bright in the skies, when the wind has passed and cleared them.

    ²²Golden brightness and splendor come out of the north; [if men can scarcely look upon it, how much less upon the] terrible splendor and majesty God has upon Himself!

    ²³Touching the Almighty, we cannot find Him out; He is excellent in power; and to justice and plenteous righteousness He does no violence [He will disregard no right].^(H)

    ²⁴Men therefore [reverently] fear Him; He regards and respects not any who are wise in heart [in their own understanding and conceit].^(I)