Job36
New King James Version
1Elihu also proceeded and said:
2“Bear with me a little, and I will show you That there are yet words to speak on God’s behalf.
3I will fetch my knowledge from afar; I 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, but despises no one; He is mighty in strength of understanding.
6He does not preserve the life of the wicked, But gives justice to the oppressed.
7He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous; But they are on the throne with kings, For He has seated them forever, And they are exalted.
8And if they are bound in fetters, Held in the cords of affliction,
9Then He tells them their work and their transgressions— That they have acted defiantly.
10He also opens their ear to instruction, And commands that they turn from iniquity.
11If they obey and serve Him, They shall spend their days in prosperity, And their years in pleasures.
12But if they do not obey, They shall perish by the sword, And they shall die without knowledge.
13“But the hypocrites in heart store up wrath; They do not cry for help when He binds them.
14They die in youth, And their life ends among the perverted persons.
15He delivers the poor in their affliction, And opens their ears in oppression.
16“Indeed He would have brought you out of dire distress, Into a broad place where there is no restraint; And what is set on your table would be full of richness.
17But you are filled with the judgment due the wicked; Judgment and justice take hold of you.
18Because there is wrath, beware lest He take you away with one blow; For a large ransom would not help you avoid it.
19Will your riches, Or all the mighty forces, Keep you from distress?
20Do not desire the night, When people are cut off in their place.
21Take heed, do not turn to iniquity, For you have chosen this rather than affliction.
22“Behold, God is exalted by His power; Who teaches like Him?
23Who has assigned Him His way, Or who has said, ‘You have done wrong’?
24“Remember to magnify His work, Of which men have sung.
25Everyone has seen it; Man looks on it from afar.
26“Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; Nor can the number of His years be discovered.
27For He draws up drops of water, Which distill as rain from the mist,
28Which the clouds drop down And pour abundantly on man.
29Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds, The thunder from His canopy?
30Look, He scatters His light upon it, And covers the depths of the sea.
31For by these He judges the peoples; He gives food in abundance.
32He covers His hands with lightning, And commands it to strike.
33His thunder declares it, The cattle also, concerning the rising storm.
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