Elihu also continued, and said,
2“Bear with me a little, and I will show you;
For I still have something to say on God’s behalf.
3I will get my knowledge from afar,
And will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
4For truly my words are not false.
One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
5“Behold, God is mighty, and does not despise anyone.
He is mighty in strength of understanding.
6He does not preserve the life of the wicked,
But gives to the afflicted their right.
7He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous,
But with kings on the throne,
He sets them forever, and they are exalted.
8If they are bound in fetters,
And are taken in the cords of afflictions,
9Then he shows them their work,
And their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.
10He also opens their ears to instruction,
And commands that they return from iniquity.
11If they listen and worship him,
They shall spend their days in prosperity,
And their years in pleasures.
12But if they do not listen, they shall perish by the sword;
They shall die without knowledge.
13“But those who are godless in heart lay up anger.
They do not cry for help when he binds them.
14They die in youth.
Their life perishes among the unclean.
15He delivers the afflicted by their affliction,
And opens their ear in oppression.
16Yes, he would have allured you out of distress,
Into a broad place, where there is no restriction.
That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.
17“But you are full of the judgment of the wicked.
Judgment and justice take hold of you.
18Do not let riches entice you to wrath,
Neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.
19Would your wealth sustain you in distress,
Or all the might of your strength?
20Do not desire the night,
When people are cut off in their place.
21Take heed, do not regard iniquity;
For this you have chosen rather than affliction.
22Behold, God is exalted in his power.
Who is a teacher like him?
23Who has prescribed his way for him?
Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness?’
24“Remember that you magnify his work,
Whereof men have sung.
25All men have looked thereon.
Man sees it afar off.
26Behold, God is great, and we do not know him.
The number of his years is unsearchable.
27For he draws up the drops of water,
Which distill in rain from his vapour,
28Which the skies pour down
And drop on man abundantly.
29Yes, can any understand the spreading of the clouds,
And the thunderings of his pavilion?
30Behold, he spreads his light around him.
He covers the bottom of the sea.
31For by these he judges the people.
He gives food in abundance.
32He covers his hands with the lightning,
And commands it to strike the mark.
33The noise of it tells about him,
And the cattle also concerning the storm that comes up.