Job 34

¹Then Elihu answered and said :

²Hear my words , you wise men , and give ear to me, you who know ;

³for the ear tests words as the palate tastes food .

⁴Let us choose what is right ; let us know among ourselves what is good .

⁵For Job has said , I am in the right , and God has taken away my right ;

⁶in spite of my right I am counted a liar ; my wound is incurable , though I am without transgression .

⁷What man is like Job , who drinks up scoffing like water ,

⁸who travels in company with evildoers and walks with wicked men ?

⁹For he has said , It profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God .

¹⁰Therefore , hear me, you men of understanding : far be it from God that he should do wickedness , and from the Almighty that he should do wrong .

¹¹For according to the work of a man he will repay him, and according to his ways he will make it befall him .

¹²Of a truth , God will not do wickedly , and the Almighty will not pervert justice .

¹³Who gave him charge over the earth , and who laid on him the whole world ?

¹⁴If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath ,

¹⁵all flesh would perish together , and man would return to dust .

¹⁶If you have understanding , hear this ; listen to what I say .

¹⁷Shall one who hates justice govern ? Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty ,

¹⁸who says to a king , Worthless one , and to nobles , Wicked man ,

¹⁹who shows no partiality to princes , nor regards the rich more than the poor , for they are all the work of his hands ?

²⁰In a moment they die ; at midnight the people are shaken and pass away , and the mighty are taken away by no human hand .

²¹For his eyes are on the ways of a man , and he sees all his steps .

²²There is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves.

²³For God has no need to consider a man further , that he should go before God in judgment .

²⁴He shatters the mighty without investigation and sets others in their place .

²⁵Thus , knowing their works , he overturns them in the night , and they are crushed .

²⁶He strikes them for their wickedness in a place for all to see ,

²⁷because they turned aside from following him and had no regard for any of his ways ,

²⁸so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him, and he heard the cry of the afflicted —

²⁹When he is quiet , who can condemn ? When he hides his face , who can behold him, whether it be a nation or a man ?—

³⁰that a godless man should not reign , that he should not ensnare the people .

³¹For has anyone said to God , I have borne punishment ; I will not offend any more;

³²teach me what I do not see ; if I have done iniquity , I will do it no more?

³³Will he then make repayment to suit you, because you reject it? For you must choose , and not I; therefore declare what you know .

³⁴Men of understanding will say to me, and the wise man who hears me will say:

³⁵Job speaks without knowledge ; his words are without insight .

³⁶Would that Job were tried to the end , because he answers like wicked men .

³⁷For he adds rebellion to his sin ; he claps his hands among us and multiplies his words against God .