Job 36:16-21

The Voice

¹⁶    Job, even now, God is enticing you away from the jaws of distress;
        He is luring you to a wide, wonderful place free of boundaries
        where your table will be covered in the finest foods.

¹⁷    You are weighed down, instead, with judgment usually reserved for the wicked.
        And yet, ironically, as you seek to lay hold of justice and judgment,
        justice and judgment have laid hold of you.
¹⁸    Beware that your anger at how you are being judged does not seduce you into scorning.
        Do not let the high ransom you are paying through your suffering steer you off God’s path.
¹⁹    Will your cry for help lessen your misery?
        How about your strength and forcefulness?
        Are they yielding you any better result?
²⁰    Do not pine, Job, for the night
        when people pass from their earthly homes into oblivion.^[a]
²¹    In short, be careful! Do not turn your life toward evil ways—
        which you have preferred to hearing God’s correcting voice in the midst of your suffering.