Study Desk

Then Elihu continued, saying:

Be patient with me a little longer, and I will inform you, for there is still more to be said on God's behalf.

I will get my knowledge from a distant place and ascribe justice to my Maker.

For my arguments are without flaw;^[a] one who has perfect knowledge is with you.

Yes, God is mighty, but He despises no one; He understands all things.^[b](a)

He does not keep the wicked alive,^(b) but He gives justice to the afflicted.

He does not remove His gaze from the righteous, but He seats them forever with enthroned kings, and they are exalted.

If people are bound with chains and trapped by the cords of affliction,

God tells them what they have done and how arrogantly they have transgressed.

He opens their ears^(c) to correction and insists they repent from iniquity.

If they serve Him obediently, they will end their days in prosperity and their years in happiness.^(d)

But if they do not obey, they will cross the river of death^[c] and die without knowledge.^(e)

Those who have a godless heart harbor anger; even when God binds them, they do not cry for help.

They die in their youth; their life ends among male cult prostitutes.^(f)

God rescues the afflicted by their affliction; He instructs them by their torment.

Indeed, He lured you from the jaws^[d] of distress to a spacious and unconfined place. Your table was spread with choice food.

Yet now you are obsessed with the judgment due the wicked; judgment and justice have seized you.

Be careful that no one lures you with riches;^[e] do not let a large ransom^[f] lead you astray.^(g)

Can your wealth^[g] or all your physical exertion keep you from distress?^(h)

Do not long for the night when nations will disappear from their places.

Be careful that you do not turn to iniquity, for that is why you have been tested by^[h] affliction.

Look, God shows Himself exalted by His power. Who is a teacher like Him?

Who has appointed His way for Him, and who has declared, "You have done wrong"?⁽ⁱ⁾

Remember that you should praise His work, which people have sung about.^(j)

All mankind has seen it; people have looked at it from a distance.^(k)

Yes, God is exalted beyond our knowledge;^(l) the number of His years cannot be counted.^(m)

For He makes waterdrops evaporate;^[i] they distill the rain into its^[j] mist,⁽ⁿ⁾

which the clouds pour out and shower abundantly on mankind.

Can anyone understand how the clouds spread out or how the thunder roars from God's pavilion?^(o)

See how He spreads His lightning^(p) around Him and covers the depths of the sea.

For He judges the nations with these; He gives food in abundance.^(q)

He covers His hands with lightning and commands it to hit its mark.

The^[k] thunder declares His presence;^[l] the cattle also, the approaching storm.

My heart^(a) pounds at this and leaps from my chest.^[a]

Just listen to His thunderous voice and the rumbling that comes from His mouth.

He lets it loose beneath the entire sky; His lightning to the ends^(b) of the earth.

Then there comes a roaring sound; God thunders^(c) with His majestic voice. He does not restrain the lightning when His rumbling voice is heard.

God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things that we cannot comprehend.

For He says to the snow,^(d) "Fall to the earth," and the torrential rains, His mighty torrential rains,

serve as His sign to all mankind, so that all men may know His work.

The wild animals enter their lairs and stay in their dens.^(e)

The windstorm comes from its chamber, and the cold from the driving north winds.

Ice is formed by the breath of God,^(f) and watery expanses are frozen.

He saturates clouds with moisture;^(g) He scatters His lightning through them.

They swirl about, turning round and round at His direction, accomplishing everything He commands them over the surface of the inhabited world.

He causes this to happen for punishment, for His land, or for His faithful love.

Listen to this, Job. Stop and consider God's wonders.

Do you know how God directs His clouds or makes their lightning flash?

Do you understand how the clouds float, those wonderful works of Him who has perfect knowledge?

You whose clothes get hot when the south wind brings calm to the land,

can you help God spread out the skies as hard as a cast metal mirror?

Teach us what we should say to Him;^(h) we cannot prepare our case because of our darkness.

Should He be told that I want to speak? Can a man speak when he is confused?

Now men cannot even look at the sun when it is in the skies, after a wind has swept through and cleared them away.

Yet out of the north He comes, shrouded in a golden glow; awesome⁽ⁱ⁾ majesty surrounds Him.

The Almighty—we cannot reach Him— He is exalted in power! He will not oppress justice and abundant righteousness,

Therefore, men fear Him. He does not look favorably on any who are wise^(j) in heart.

Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind.^(a) He said:

Who is this who obscures My counsel with ignorant words?^(b)

Get ready to answer Me like a man; when I question^(c) you, you will inform Me.

Where were you when I established^(d) the earth? Tell Me, if you have^[a] understanding.

Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?

What supports its foundations? Or who laid its cornerstone

while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God^(e) shouted for joy?

Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst from the womb,

when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket,^[b](f)

when I determined its boundaries^[c] and put its bars and doors in place,

when I declared: "You may come this far, but no farther; your proud waves stop here"?

Have you ever in your life commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,

so it may seize the edges of the earth and shake the wicked out of it?

The earth is changed as clay is by a seal; its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.

Light^[d] is withheld from the wicked, and the arm raised in violence is broken.

Have you traveled to the sources of the sea or walked in the depths of the oceans?

Have the gates^(g) of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

Have you comprehended the extent of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.

Where is the road to the home of light? Do you know where darkness lives,

so you can lead it back to its border? Are you familiar with the paths to its home?

Don't you know? You were already born;^(h) you have lived so long!^[e]

Have you entered the place where the snow is stored? Or have you seen the storehouses of hail,⁽ⁱ⁾

which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of warfare and battle?^(j)

What road leads to the place where light is dispersed?^[f] Where is the source of the east wind that spreads across the earth?

Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain or clears the way for lightning,

to bring rain on an uninhabited land, on a desert with no human life,^[g]

to satisfy the parched wasteland and cause the grass to sprout?^(k)

Does the rain have a father? Who fathered the drops of dew?^(l)

Whose womb did the ice come from? Who gave birth to the frost of heaven

when water becomes as hard as stone,^[h] and the surface of the watery depths is frozen?^(m)

Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?

Can you bring out the constellations^[i] in their season and lead the Bear^[j] and her cubs?⁽ⁿ⁾

Do you know the laws^(o) of heaven? Can you impose its^[k] authority on earth?

Can you command^[l] the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?^(p)

Can you send out lightning^(q) bolts, and they go? Do they report to you: "Here we are"?

Who put wisdom^(r) in the heart^[m] or gave the mind understanding?

Who has the wisdom to number the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of heaven

when the dust hardens like cast metal and the clods of dirt stick together?

Can you hunt prey for a lioness or satisfy the appetite of young lions^(s)

when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait within their lairs?

Who provides the raven's food^(t) when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?

Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the deer in labor?

Can you count the months they are pregnant^[a] so you can know the time they give birth?

They crouch down to give birth to their young; they deliver their newborn.^[b]

Their offspring are healthy and grow up in the open field. They leave and do not return.^[c]

Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from its harness?

I made the wilderness^(a) its home, and the salty^(b) wasteland its dwelling.

It scoffs at the noise of the village and never hears the shouts of a driver.^(c)

It roams the mountains for its pastureland, searching for anything green.

Would the wild ox be willing to serve you? Would it spend the night by your feeding trough?

Can you hold the wild ox^(d) to a furrow by its harness? Will it plow the valleys behind you?

Can you depend on it because its strength is great? Would you leave it to do your hard work?

Can you trust the wild ox to harvest your grain and bring it to your threshing floor?