Job 36:8-23

Christian Standard Bible

⁸ If people are bound with chains
and trapped by the cords of affliction,
⁹ God tells them what they have done
and how arrogantly they have transgressed.
¹⁰ He opens their ears^(A) to correction
and tells them to repent from iniquity.
¹¹ If they listen and serve him,
they will end their days in prosperity
and their years in happiness.^(B)
12 But if they do not listen,
they will cross the river of death^[a]
and die without knowledge.^(C)

¹³ Those who have a godless heart harbor anger;
even when God binds them, they do not cry for help.
¹⁴ They die in their youth;
their life ends among male cult prostitutes.^(D)
15 God rescues the afflicted by their affliction;
he instructs them by their torment.

¹⁶ Indeed, he lured you from the jaws^[b] of distress
to a spacious and unconfined place.
Your table was spread with choice food.
¹⁷ Yet now you are obsessed with the judgment due the wicked;
judgment and justice have seized you.
¹⁸ Be careful that no one lures you with riches;^[c]
do not let a large ransom^[d] lead you astray.^(E)
19 Can your wealth^[e] or all your physical exertion
keep you from distress?^(F)
20 Do not long for the night
when nations will disappear from their places.
²¹ Be careful that you do not turn to iniquity,
for that is why you have been tested by^[f] affliction.

²² Look, God shows himself exalted by his power.
Who is a teacher like him?
²³ Who has appointed his way for him,
and who has declared, “You have done wrong”?^(G)