Job 34

Elihu: Far Be It from God to Do Wickedness

← Job 33  ·  Job: all chapters  ·  Job 35 →

The Second Speech of Elihu

34:1Then Elihu replied:

34:2“Hear me, you wise;
you who understand, give ear to what is good.

34:3For an ear tests words,
and a throat tastes food.

34:4Let us choose judgment for ourselves;
let us know among ourselves what is good.

34:5For Job has said, ‘I am righteous;
the Lord removed my judgment,

34:6and He lied concerning my judgment;
my arrow is violent, though I did no injustice.’

34:7What man is like Job,
drinking mockery like water,

34:8without sinning or acting ungodly,
or sharing a road with those doing lawless things,
to travel with the ungodly?

34:9For do not say, ‘There will be no inspection of a man’;
there is an inspection for him from the Lord.

34:10Therefore, you understanding in heart, hear me:
may I never act ungodly before the Lord
or disturb what is right before the Almighty.

34:11Instead, He repays a human as each one of them acts,
and on a man’s path He will find him.

34:12Do you think the Lord will do improper things,
or the Almighty disturb judgment?

34:13He is the One who made the earth;
who is the One making the realm under heaven and everything within it?

34:14for if He wished to hold back
and retain the spirit with Himself,

34:15all flesh will die together,
and every mortal will go to earth,
from which he was also formed.

34:16If you are not being admonished, hear these things;
give ear to the sound of words.

34:17Look at the One who hates lawless things
and destroys the wicked,
who is eternally righteous.

34:18Ungodly is the one saying to a king, ‘You act lawlessly,’
and to rulers, ‘Most ungodly one,’

34:19who did not stand in awe before an honored person,
nor knows how to give honor to powerful men
so as to admire their persons.

34:20Their crying out and asking a man for help will prove empty,
for they dealt lawlessly while the powerless were turned aside.

34:21For He Himself observes human works,
and nothing they do has escaped Him,

34:22and there will be no place
for those doing lawless things to hide.

34:23For He will place no more upon a man;
for the Lord observes everyone,

34:24He who comprehends unsearchable things,
glorious and terrible things beyond number,

34:25He who makes their works known
will turn night about, and they will be humbled.

34:26He extinguished the ungodly,
and they are visible before Him,

34:27because they turned aside from God’s law
and did not recognize His ordinances,

34:28so as to bring a needy person’s cry upon Him;
He will hear the cry of the poor.

34:29He will provide quiet, and who will condemn?
He will hide His face, and who will see Him?
Upon a nation and upon a human alike,

34:30He makes a hypocritical human king
because of a people’s perversity.

34:31For the one saying to the Strong One,
‘I have received; I will not take pledges;

34:32apart from myself I will see; You show me;
if I practiced injustice, I will certainly not add to it’—

34:33Will He repay it on your terms?
For you will reject it, for you will choose, not I;
speak what you have known.

34:34Therefore those understanding in heart will say these things,
and a wise man has heard my word:

34:35‘Job did not speak with understanding,
and his words were not spoken with knowledge.’

34:36Nevertheless, learn, Job;
do not give another answer like the foolish,

34:37so that we may not add to our sins;
lawlessness will be reckoned against us
as we speak many words before the Lord.”

← Job 33  ·  Job: all chapters  ·  Job 35 →

Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.