Job 36
Expanded Bible
Elihu’s Speech Continues
36 Elihu continued:
2 “·Listen to [or Be patient with] me a little longer, and I will ·show [inform] you
that there is more to be said for God.
3 What I know comes from far away.
I will ·show that my Maker is right [ascribe righteousness to my Maker].
4 You can be sure that my words are not false;
·one who really knows is with you [L perfect knowledge is with me].
5 “God is powerful, but he does not ·hate [disdain; reject] people;
he is strong and ·sure of what he wants to do [L powerful in understanding/heart].
6 He will not keep evil people alive,
but he gives the ·poor [afflicted] their rights.
7 He ·always watches over [L does not withhold his eye from] those who do right;
he sets them on thrones with kings
and they are ·honored [exalted] forever.
8 If people are bound in chains,
or if ·trouble [affliction], like ropes, ties them up,
9 God tells them what they have done,
that they have sinned in their pride.
10 He ·makes them listen [L opens their ear] to his ·warning [instruction; discipline]
and commands them to change from doing evil.
11 If they ·obey [or listen] and serve him,
·the rest of their lives will be successful [L their days will finish happily],
and the rest of their years will be ·happy [pleasant].
12 But if they do not listen,
they will ·die by the sword [or pass through the water channel; C reference to death],
and they will die ·without knowing why [in ignorance].
13 “Those who have ·wicked [L godless] hearts hold on to anger.
Even when ·God punishes [L he imprisons] them, they do not cry for help.
14 They die while they are still young,
and their lives end ·in disgrace [L among male prostitutes].
15 But God saves those who ·suffer [are afflicted] ·through [or by means of] their ·suffering [affliction];
he ·gets them to listen [L opens their ear] ·through [or by means of] their pain.
16 “God ·is gently calling [has wooed/enticed] you from the jaws of ·trouble [distress]
to an ·open place of freedom [L broad place with no constraints]
where he has set your table full of ·the best food [L fatness].
17 But now you are ·being punished like [obsessed/filled with the case of] the wicked;
·you are getting justice [L judgment and justice hold on tight to you].
18 Be careful! ·Don’t be led away from God by riches [L …lest anger seduce you by abundance];
don’t let ·much money [a big ransom/bribe] turn you away.
19 Neither your wealth nor all your great strength
will keep you out of trouble.
20 Don’t ·wish [pant; long] for the night
when people are taken from their homes.
21 Be careful not to turn to evil,
which you ·seem to want more [have chosen rather] than ·suffering [affliction].
22 “God is ·great [exulted] and powerful;
·no other teacher is [L who is a teacher…?] like him.
23 ·No one [L Who…?] has ·planned [prescribed] his ways for him;
·no one can say to God [L who says to him…?], ‘You have done wrong.’
24 Remember to ·praise [extol] his work,
about which people have sung.
25 Everybody has seen it;
people look at it from far off.
26 God is so ·great, greater than we can understand [exalted and we do not understand]!
·No one knows how old he is [L The number of his years is unknown].
27 “He ·evaporates [or holds in check] the drops of water from the earth
and ·turns them into rain [filters rain for his streams/or mists; Gen. 2:6].
28 The rain then pours down from the clouds,
and ·showers fall [L drops abundantly] on people.
29 ·No one understands [L Who can understand…?] ·how God spreads out the [L the spreading] clouds
or how he sends thunder from ·where he lives [L his booth/pavilion].
30 Watch how God ·scatters [spreads] his lightning around him,
·lighting up the deepest parts [L covering the roots] of the sea.
31 This is the way God ·governs [or sustains] the nations;
this is how he gives us ·enough [plenty; abundant] food.
32 God ·fills [L covers] his hands with lightning
and commands it to strike its target.
33 His thunder announces ·the coming storm [L about him/it; C thunder announces either the coming storm or the coming of God],
and ·even the cattle know it is near [or the storm announces his coming wrath; or the passion of his anger is against inquity].
Job 36
Young's Literal Translation
36 And Elihu addeth and saith: --
2 Honour me a little, and I shew thee, That yet for God [are] words.
3 I lift up my knowledge from afar, And to my Maker I ascribe righteousness.
4 For, truly, my words [are] not false, The perfect in knowledge [is] with thee.
5 Lo, God [is] mighty, and despiseth not, Mighty [in] power [and] heart.
6 He reviveth not the wicked, And the judgment of the poor appointeth;
7 He withdraweth not from the righteous His eyes, And [from] kings on the throne, And causeth them to sit for ever, and they are high,
8 And if prisoners in fetters They are captured with cords of affliction,
9 Then He declareth to them their work, And their transgressions, Because they have become mighty,
10 And He uncovereth their ear for instruction, And saith that they turn back from iniquity.
11 If they do hear and serve, They complete their days in good, And their years in pleasantness.
12 And if they do not hearken, By the dart they pass away, And expire without knowledge.
13 And the profane in heart set the face, They cry not when He hath bound them.
14 Their soul dieth in youth, And their life among the defiled.
15 He draweth out the afflicted in his affliction, And uncovereth in oppression their ear.
16 And also He moved thee from a strait place, [To] a broad place -- no straitness under it, And the sitting beyond of thy table Hath been full of fatness.
17 And the judgment of the wicked thou hast fulfilled, Judgment and justice are upheld -- because of fury,
18 Lest He move thee with a stroke, And the abundance of an atonement turn thee not aside.
19 Doth He value thy riches? He hath gold, and all the forces of power.
20 Desire not the night, For the going up of peoples in their stead.
21 Take heed -- do not turn unto iniquity, For on this thou hast fixed Rather than [on] affliction.
22 Lo, God doth sit on high by His power, Who [is] like Him -- a teacher?
23 Who hath appointed unto Him his way? And who said, `Thou hast done iniquity?'
24 Remember that thou magnify His work That men have beheld.
25 All men have looked on it, Man looketh attentively from afar.
26 Lo, God [is] high, And we know not the number of His years, Yea, there [is] no searching.
27 When He doth diminish droppings of the waters, They refine rain according to its vapour,
28 Which clouds do drop, They distil on man abundantly.
29 Yea, doth [any] understand The spreadings out of a cloud? The noises of His tabernacle?
30 Lo, He hath spread over it His light, And the roots of the sea He hath covered,
31 For by them He doth judge peoples, He giveth food in abundance.
32 By two palms He hath covered the light, And layeth a charge over it in meeting,
33 He sheweth by it [to] his friend substance, Anger against perversity.
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