God tests humans to correct them
1Elihu proceeded further:
2Bear with me a little and I will explain,
for I have more to say on God’s behalf.
3I will spread my knowledge afar
to do justice to my Maker.
4Be assured that my words are not false,
for you have before you an enlightened man.
5God is mighty indeed
but he does not despise the pure of heart.
6He cuts off the power of the sinner
and restores the right of the oppressed,
7he does not forsake their claim.
He sets kings on their thrones
and makes them firm forever.
But if they raise themselves in pride,
8he has them bound with fetters
and held fast by bonds of affliction.
9Then he tells them what they have done,
all their sins and arrogance.
10He opens their ears to correction
and exhorts them to repentance.
11If they obey and serve him,
they spend their days in prosperity
and their years in contentment.
12But if they do not listen, they go to the grave:
knowledge would have saved them.
13These hypocrites harbor resentment:
they do not pray for help in their bonds,
14therefore they die in their youth
and perish among the reprobate.
15God saves the wretched through their suffering,
God instructs the unfortunate.
16In like manner, he brings you from distress
to a free and broad space,
to a table filled with rich food.
17Then you will judge the wicked;
justice and judgment will be yours.
18Take care lest you be seduced by generosity;
do not yield to arrogance, bribery and corruption.
19Your wealth and all your mighty efforts
will not bail you out of distress.
20Do not long for the coming of night
to drag people away from their homes.
21Beware of turning to iniquity;
because of it you have been tried by affliction.
A hymn to God’s greatness
22 ① God is exalted in his power.
What teacher is there like him?
23Who has prescribed his ways for him,
or said to him that he has done wrong?
24Remember to extol his work,
of which many have sung.
25Everyone has seen it;
all gaze on it from afar.
26God is great beyond our understanding;
the number of his years is past reckoning.
27He holds in check the waterdrops
which distill from the mist as rain,
28then the clouds pour them down
and drop them upon the earth as showers.
29This is the way he nourishes the land
that provides food in abundance.
30Who can understand how he spreads the clouds,
how he thunders from his pavilion?
31He unfurls his mists
and covers the expanse of the sea.
32With both hands he lifts up lightning
and commands it to strike the target.
33His thunder warns the shepherd
and the flock senses the tempest.
- Job 36,22 This second poem on the greatness of God concludes Elihu's speeches just as the poem of the miners concluded the discourses of Job's three friends.
