34 Elihu continued speaking:

² “Hear my words, you sages!
Listen to me, you who know so much!
³ For the ear tests words,
just as the palate tastes food.
⁴ Let’s choose for ourselves what is just;
let’s decide among ourselves what is good.
⁵ For Iyov says, ‘I am in the right,
but God is denying me justice.
⁶ Against justice, I am considered a liar;
my wound is mortal, though I committed no crime.’

⁷ “Is there a man like Iyov,
who drinks in scoffing like water,
⁸ who keeps company with evildoers
and goes with wicked men,
⁹ since he thinks, ‘It profits a person nothing
to be in accord with God’?

¹⁰ “So listen to me, you men with sense!
Far be it from God to do anything wicked!
¹¹ For he pays people back for what they do
and sees that each gets what his conduct deserves.
¹² It is certain that God does nothing wicked;
Shaddai will not pervert justice.
¹³ Did someone else put him in charge of the earth?
Who else established the entire world?
¹⁴ If he were to take back man’s heart to himself,
if he gathered to himself his spirit and breath;
¹⁵ all flesh would instantly perish,
everyone would return to dust.

¹⁶ “If you have any sense, [Iyov,] hear this;
listen to what I am saying.
^17-18 Should a hater of justice be in control?
If you wouldn’t tell a king, ‘You’re a scoundrel!’
or nobles, ‘You are wicked men!’
then you shouldn’t condemn the Just and Mighty One,
¹⁹ who is neither partial toward princes
nor favors the rich over the poor,
since they all are the work of his hands.
²⁰ They may die in a moment, in the middle of the night —
the people are shaken and pass away,
the mighty are removed without human hands.
²¹ For he keeps watch on a person’s ways;
he sees his every step.
²² There is no darkness, no death-like gloom,
where wrongdoers can hide;
²³ for he doesn’t give warning to people
when they must appear before God in judgment.
²⁴ He shatters the mighty without needing to investigate
and sets up others in their place.
²⁵ Therefore, aware of what they are doing,
he overturns them by night, and they are crushed.
²⁶ He strikes them as if they were common criminals
in the open sight of others,
²⁷ because they turned away from following him
and gave no thought to any of his ways,
²⁸ thereby bringing before him the cries of the poor;
and he hears the cries of the oppressed.

²⁹ “But if God is silent, who can accuse him;
if he hides his face, who can see him?
He may do this to nations and persons alike,
³⁰ so that godless men will not become kings,
and the people will not be lured into traps.

³¹ “For has anyone said to God,
‘I have been chastised without having offended;
³² teach me what I have failed to see;
and if I have done wrong, I will do it no more’?
³³ Must his rewards meet your approval?
Well, you are the one who doesn’t like them,
so you, not I, should pick the alternative;
come on, say what you think!
³⁴ Intelligent people will tell me,
every wise man who hears me will say,
³⁵ ‘Iyov is speaking without thinking;
his words lack discernment.’

³⁶ “I wish Iyov would be kept on trial forever,
because he answers like wicked men.
³⁷ For now to his sin he adds rebellion;
he [mockingly] claps his hands among us
and keeps adding to his words against God.”