Elihu Says God Gives the Afflicted Justice
Then Elihu continued and said,
2 “Wait for me a little, and I will show you
That there is yet more to be said in God’s behalf.
3 I will take up my knowledge from afar,
And I will ascribe arighteousness to my Maker.
4 For truly amy words are not a lie;
One who is bperfect in knowledge is with you.
5 Behold, God is mighty but does not areject;
He is bmighty in the power of His heart.
6 He does not akeep the wicked alive,
But gives justice to bthe afflicted.
7 He does not awithdraw His eyes from the righteous;
But bwith kings on the throne
He has seated them forever, and they are exalted.
8 And if they are bound in fetters,
And are caught in the cords of aaffliction,
9 Then He declares to them their work
And their transgressions, that they have amagnified themselves.
10 aHe opens their ear to discipline,
And bsays that they return from wickedness.
11 If they hear and serve Him,
They will aend their days in prosperity
And their years in bpleasures.
12 But if they do not hear, they shall pass away aby a weapon
And they will bbreathe their last without knowledge.
13 But the godless in heart lay up anger;
They do not cry for help when He binds them.
14 They die in youth,
And their life perishes among the acult prostitutes.
15 He delivers the afflicted in their aaffliction,
And bopens their ear in time of oppression.
16 Then indeed, He aenticed you from the mouth of distress,
Instead of it, a broad place with no constraint;
And the comfort of your table full of fatness.
17 “But you were full of ajudgment on the wicked;
Judgment and justice take hold of you.
18 Beware lest awrath entice you to scoffing;
And do not let the greatness of the batonement turn you aside.
19 Will your cries keep you from distress,
Or all the forces of your power?
20 Do not long for athe night,
When people vanish in their place.
21 Be careful, do anot turn to wickedness,
For you have chosen this to baffliction.
22 Behold, God is exalted in His power;
Who is a ateacher like Him?
23 Who has appointed Him His way,
And who has said, ‘aYou have worked out unrighteousness’?
24 “Remember that you should aexalt His work,
Of which men have bsung.
25 All men have beheld it;
Man looks from afar.
26 Behold, God is aexalted, and bwe do not know Him;
The cnumber of His years is unsearchable.
27 For aHe draws up the drops of water,
They distill rain for His stream,
28 Which the clouds pour down,
They drip upon man abundantly.
29 Can anyone discern the aspreading of the clouds,
The bthundering of His pavilion?
30 Behold, He spreads His lightning about Him,
And He covers the depths of the sea.
31 For by these He ajudges peoples;
He bgives food in abundance.
32 He covers His hands with the lightning,
And acommands it to strike the mark.
33 Its athundering declares about Him;
The cattle also, concerning what is coming up.