Job36
New International Version
1Elihu continued:
2“Bear with me a little longer and I will show you that there is more to be said in God’s behalf.
3I get my knowledge from afar; I will ascribe justice to my Maker.
4Be assured that my words are not false; one who has perfect knowledge is with you.
5“God is mighty, but despises no one; he is mighty, and firm in his purpose.
6He does not keep the wicked alive but gives the afflicted their rights.
7He does not take his eyes off the righteous; he enthrones them with kings and exalts them forever.
8But if people are bound in chains, held fast by cords of affliction,
9he tells them what they have done— that they have sinned arrogantly.
10He makes them listen to correction and commands them to repent of their evil.
11If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment.
12But if they do not listen, they will perish by the sword and die without knowledge.
13“The godless in heart harbor resentment; even when he fetters them, they do not cry for help.
14They die in their youth, among male prostitutes of the shrines.
15But those who suffer he delivers in their suffering; he speaks to them in their affliction.
16“He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food.
17But now you are laden with the judgment due the wicked; judgment and justice have taken hold of you.
18Be careful that no one entices you by riches; do not let a large bribe turn you aside.
19Would your wealth or even all your mighty efforts sustain you so you would not be in distress?
20Do not long for the night, to drag people away from their homes.
21Beware of turning to evil, which you seem to prefer to affliction.
22“God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?
23Who has prescribed his ways for him, or said to him, ‘You have done wrong’?
24Remember to extol his work, which people have praised in song.
25All humanity has seen it; mortals gaze on it from afar.
26How great is God—beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out.
27“He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams;
28the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind.
29Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds, how he thunders from his pavilion?
30See how he scatters his lightning about him, bathing the depths of the sea.
31This is the way he governs the nations and provides food in abundance.
32He fills his hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark.
33His thunder announces the coming storm; even the cattle make known its approach.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Job 36.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: Elihu desires Job's attention. (1–4). The methods in which God deals with men. (5–14). Elihu counsels Job. (15–23). The wonders in the works of creation. (24–33).
vv1-4
Elihu only maintained that the affliction was sent for his trial; and lengthened because Job was not yet thoroughly humbled under it. He sought to ascribe righteousness to his Maker; to clear this truth, that God is righteous in all his ways. Such knowledge must be learned from the word and Spirit of God, for naturally we are estranged from it. The fitness of Elihu's discourse to the dispute between Job and his friends is plain. It pointed out to Job the true reason of those trials with which he had been pointed out to Job the true reason of those trials with which he had been visited. It taught that God had acted in mercy towards him, and the spiritual benefit he was to derive from them. It corrected the mistake of his friends, and showed that Job's calamities were for good.
vv5-14
Elihu here shows that God acts as righteous Governor. He is always ready to defend those that are injured. If our eye is ever toward God in duty, his eye will be ever upon us in mercy, and, when we are at the lowest, will not overlook us. God intends, when he afflicts us, to discover past sins to us, and to bring them to our remembrance. Also, to dispose our hearts to be taught: affliction makes people willing to learn, through the grace of God working with and by it. And further, to deter us from sinning for the future. It is a command, to have no more to do with sin. If we faithfully serve God, we have the promise of the life that now is, and the comforts of it, as far as is for God's glory and our good: and who would desire them any further? We have the possession of inward pleasures, the great peace which those have that love God's law. If the affliction fail in its work, let men expect the furnace to be heated till they are consumed. Those that die without knowledge, die without grace, and are undone for ever. See the nature of hypocrisy; it lies in the heart: that is for the world and the flesh, while perhaps the outside seems to be for God and religion. Whether sinners die in youth, or live long to heap up wrath, their case is dreadful. The souls of the wicked live after death, but it is in everlasting misery.
vv15-23
Elihu shows that Job caused the continuance of his own trouble. He cautions him not to persist in frowardness. Even good men need to be kept to their duty by the fear of God's wrath; the wisest and best have enough in them to deserve his stroke. Let not Job continue his unjust quarrel with God and his providence. And let us never dare to think favourably of sin, never indulge it, nor allow ourselves in it. Elihu thinks Job needed this caution, he having chosen rather to gratify his pride and humour by contending with God, than to mortify them by submitting, and accepting the punishment. It is absurd for us to think to teach Him who is himself the Fountain of light, truth, knowledge, and instruction. He teaches by the Bible, and that is the best book; teaches by his Son, and he is the best Master. He is just in all proceedings.
Key Words
אֱלִיהוּ: Elihu, the name of one of Job's friends, and of three Israelites
יָסַף: to add or augment (often adverbial, to continue to do a thing)
אָמַר: to say (used with great latitude)
כָּתַר: to enclose; hence (in a friendly sense) to crown, (in a hostile one) to besiege; also to wait (as restraining oneself)
זְעֵיר: small
חָוָה: properly, to live; by implication (intensively) to declare or show
כִּי: (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below); often largely modified by other particles annexed
עוֹד: properly, iteration or continuance; used only adverbially (with or without preposition), again, repeatedly, still, more
מִלָּה: a word; collectively, a discourse; figuratively, a topic
אֱלוֹהַּ: a deity or the Deity
Cross References
Job 36Afflicted righteous are set with kings on the throne, echoing Hannah's song of divine reversal.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
God raises the poor out of the dust to inherit the throne of glory.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
New Testament confirmation that the eyes of the Lord are continuously over the righteous.
Supported by JFB
Elihu repeats his core thesis that God opens ears to instruction through disciplinary affliction.
Supported by JFB
Verbal echo of impenitent sinners who 'heap up wrath' against themselves for the day of judgment.
Supported by JFB
Sodomitic uncleanness; Elihu warns that the life of the unclean/hypocrites ends in early dishonor.
Supported by JFB
The dramatic rescue of being brought out of a strait place into a broad, free space.
Supported by JFB
Ascribing righteousness to the Creator, who has sovereign rights over the clay as Maker.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Elihu promises true and sincere words, unlike the deceitful and false arguments of the friends.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Contrasts Job's charge that God despises the work of His hands with Elihu's vindication.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Parallel description of hypocrites who do not cry out to God when trouble comes.
Supported by JFB
A well-supplied table of fatness representing the abundance of the restored and prosperous believer.
Supported by JFB
The sovereign teaching of God; none can direct His path or prescribe His way.
Supported by Matthew Poole
No material wealth or human ransom can deliver a soul from the stroke of God.
Supported by JFB