Elihu Says God Gives the Afflicted Justice

1Then Elihu continued and said,

2“Wait for me a little, and I will show you

That there [†]is yet more to be said in God’s behalf.

3I will take up my knowledge from afar,

And I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

4For truly my words are not a lie;

One who is [†]perfect in knowledge is with you.

5Behold, God is mighty but does not reject;

He is mighty in the power of His heart.

6He does not keep the wicked alive,

But gives justice to the afflicted.

7He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous;

But with kings on the throne

He has seated them forever, and they are exalted.

8And if they are bound in fetters,

And are caught in the cords of affliction,

9Then He declares to them their work

And their transgressions, that they have magnified themselves.

10He opens their ear to discipline,

And says that they return from wickedness.

11If they hear and serve Him,

They will end their days in prosperity

And their years in pleasures.

12But if they do not hear, they shall pass away by a weapon

And they will breathe their last without knowledge.

13But the godless in heart lay up anger;

They do not cry for help when He binds them.

14[†]They die in youth,

And their life perishes among the cult prostitutes.

15He delivers the afflicted in [†]their affliction,

And opens their ear in [†]time of oppression.

16Then indeed, He enticed you from the mouth of distress,

Instead of it, a broad place with no constraint;

And the comfort of your table full of [†]fatness.

17“But you were full of judgment on the wicked;

Judgment and justice take hold of you.

18Beware lest wrath entice you to scoffing;

And do not let the greatness of the atonement turn you aside.

19Will your [†]cries keep you from distress,

Or all the forces of your power?

20Do not long for the night,

When people [†]vanish in their place.

21Be careful, do not turn to wickedness,

For you have chosen this to affliction.

22Behold, God is exalted in His power;

Who is a teacher like Him?

23Who has appointed Him His way,

And who has said, ‘You have worked out [†]unrighteousness’?

24“Remember that you should exalt His work,

Of which men have sung.

25All men have beheld it;

Man looks from afar.

26Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him;

The number of His years is unsearchable.

27For He draws up the drops of water,

They distill rain for His [†]stream,

28Which the clouds pour down,

They drip upon man abundantly.

29Can anyone discern the spreading of the clouds,

The thundering of His [†]pavilion?

30Behold, He spreads His [†]lightning about Him,

And He covers the depths of the sea.

31For by these He judges peoples;

He gives food in abundance.

32He covers His hands with the [†]lightning,

And commands it to strike the mark.

33Its thundering declares about Him;

The cattle also, concerning what is coming up.