CHAPTER 34
1And Elihu spoke up and he said:
2Listen, you sages, to my words,
and you who know, O hearken to me.
3For the ear probes words
as the palate tastes in eating.
4Let us take us a case to
let us know what is good between us.
5For Job has said, “I’m in the right,
and God has diverted my case.
6He lies about my case,
I’m sore-wounded from His shaft for no crime.”
7Who is a man like Job,
lapping up scorn like water?
8He consorts with wrongdoers
and walks with wicked men.
9For he has said, “What use to a man
to find favor with God?”
10Therefore, discerning men, hear me:
far be from God any wickedness,
from Shaddai any wrong.
11For a man’s acts He pays him back,
and by a person’s path He provides him.
12Surely God does not act wickedly,
and Shaddai does not pervert justice.
13Who assigned the earth to Him,
and placed the whole world with Him?
14Should He set His mind on man,
his living breath He would gather to Him.
15All flesh would expire together,
man to the dust would return.
16If you understand, then listen to this,
hearken to the sound of my words.
17Would one who hates justice hold sway,
would you call the great Righteous One wicked?
18Does one say of a king “scoundrel,”
“wicked” of the nobles?
19Who did not show favor to princes
nor was partial to rich over poor,
for they all are the work of His hands.
20In a moment they die, at midnight,
a people is upturned, passes on,
the mighty swept off, by no hand.
21For His eyes are on a man’s ways,
and all his steps He does see.
22There is no dark and no death’s shadow
where wrongdoers can hide.
23For He sets no fixed time for man
to come in judgment with God.
24He smashes the limitless mighty
and puts others in their place.
25Therefore He knows their deeds,
overturns them, in a night they are crushed.
26For their wickedness He strikes them
27because they turned away from Him,
and all His ways they did not grasp,
28bringing the poor man’s scream before Him,
and the scream of the lowly He heard.
29Should He be silent, who could condemn Him?
Should He hide His face, who could glimpse Him,
whether a nation or a man?
30—rather than a tainted man ruling,
than snares for the people.
31Did he ever say to God,
“I shall bear my punishment and not sin,
32I did not see—You must instruct me,
if I have done wrong, I won’t do it again”?
33Should He by your dictates mete out justice,
for it is you who reject or choose, not I?
And what do you know?—speak.
34Discerning men will say to me
and a wise man listening to me:
35“Job speaks without knowledge,
and his words are without any sense.”
36Would that Job might be tested forever
for responding like villainous men.
37For he adds to his offense,
makes crime abound among us,
and compounds his talk against God.