36:1  ELIHU PROCEEDED and said,

36:2  Bear with me {and} wait a little longer, and I will show you, for I have something still to say on God's behalf.

36:3  I will bring my knowledge from afar and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

36:4  For truly my words shall not be false; He Who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

36:5  Behold! God is mighty, and yet despises no one nor regards anything as trivial; He is mighty in power of understanding {and} heart.

36:6  He does not prolong the life of the wicked, but gives the needy {and} afflicted their right.

36:7  He withdraws not His eyes from the righteous (the upright in right standing with God); but He sets them forever with kings upon the throne, and they are exalted.

36:8  And if they are bound in fetters [of adversity] and held by cords of affliction,

36:9  Then He shows to them [the true character of] their deeds and their transgressions, that they have acted arrogantly [with presumption and self-sufficiency].

36:10  He also opens their ears to instruction {and} discipline, and commands that they return from iniquity.

36:11  If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasantness {and} joy.

36:12  But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword [of God's destructive judgments], and they shall die in ignorance of true knowledge.

36:13  But the godless {and} profane in heart heap up anger [at the divine discipline]; they do not cry to Him when He binds them [with cords of affliction].

36:14  They die in youth, and their life perishes among the unclean (those who are sodomites).

36:15  He delivers the afflicted in their affliction and opens their ears [to His voice] in adversity.

36:16  Indeed, God would have allured you out of the mouth of distress into a broad place where there is no situation of perplexity {or} privation; and that which would be set on your table would be full of fatness.

36:17  But if you [Job] are filled with the judgment of the wicked, judgment and justice will keep hold on you.

36:18  For let not wrath entice you into scorning chastisements; and let not the greatness of the ransom [the suffering, if rightly endured] turn you aside.

36:19  Will your cry be sufficient to keep you from distress, or will all the force of your strength do it?

36:20  Desire not the night, when peoples are cut off from their places;

36:21  Take heed, turn not to iniquity, for this [the iniquity of complaining against God] you have chosen rather than [submission in] affliction.

36:22  Behold, God exalts {and} does loftily in His power; who is a ruler {or} a teacher like Him?

36:23  Who has appointed God His way? Or who can say, You have done unrighteousness?

36:24  Remember that [by submission] you magnify God's work, of which men have sung.

36:25  All men have looked upon God's work; man may behold it afar off.

36:26  Behold, God is great, and we know Him not! The number of His years is unsearchable.

36:27  For He draws up the drops of water, which distil as rain from His vapor,

36:28  Which the skies pour down and drop abundantly upon [the multitudes of] mankind.

36:29  Not only that, but can anyone understand the spreadings of the clouds {or} the thunderings of His pavilion?

36:30  Behold, He spreads His lightning against the dark clouds and covers the roots of the sea.

36:31  For by [His clouds] God executes judgment upon the peoples; He gives food in abundance.

36:32  He covers His hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark.

36:33  His thunderings speak [awesomely] concerning Him; the cattle are told of His coming storm.