| 1 | Then Elihu continued and said: |
| 2 | “Hear my words, you wise men, and give ear to me, you who know; |
| 3 | for the ear tests words as the palate tastes food. |
| 4 | Let us choose what is right; let us determine among ourselves what is good. |
| 5 | For Job has said, ‘I am innocent, and God has taken away my right; |
| 6 | in spite of being right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’ |
| 7 | Who is there like Job, who drinks up scoffing like water, |
| 8 | who goes in company with evildoers and walks with the wicked? |
| 9 | For he has said, ‘It profits one nothing to take delight in God.’ |
| 10 | “Therefore, hear me, you who have sense, far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. |
| 11 | For according to their deeds he will repay them, and according to their ways he will make it befall them. |
| 12 | Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice. |
| 13 | Who gave him charge over the earth and who laid on him the whole world? |
| 14 | If he should take back his spirit to himself, and gather to himself his breath, |
| 15 | all flesh would perish together, and all mortals return to dust. |
| 16 | “If you have understanding, hear this; listen to what I say. |
| 17 | Shall one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn one who is righteous and mighty, |
| 18 | who says to a king, ‘You scoundrel!’ and to princes, ‘You wicked men!’; |
| 19 | who shows no partiality to nobles, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands? |
| 20 | In a moment they die; at midnight the people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away by no human hand. |
| 21 | “For his eyes are upon the ways of mortals, and he sees all their steps. |
| 22 | There is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves. |
| 23 | For he has not appointed a time for anyone to go before God in judgment. |
| 24 | He shatters the mighty without investigation, and sets others in their place. |
| 25 | Thus, knowing their works, he overturns them in the night, and they are crushed. |
| 26 | He strikes them for their wickedness while others look on, |
| 27 | because they turned aside from following him, and had no regard for any of his ways, |
| 28 | so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him, and he heard the cry of the afflicted — |
| 29 | When he is quiet, who can condemn? When he hides his face, who can behold him, whether it be a nation or an individual? — |
| 30 | so that the godless should not reign, or those who ensnare the people. |
| 31 | “For has anyone said to God, ‘I have endured punishment; I will not offend any more; |
| 32 | teach me what I do not see; if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’? |
| 33 | Will he then pay back to suit you, because you reject it? For you must choose, and not I; therefore declare what you know. |
| 34 | Those who have sense will say to me, and the wise who hear me will say, |
| 35 | ‘Job speaks without knowledge, his words are without insight.’ |
| 36 | Would that Job were tried to the limit, because his answers are those of the wicked. |
| 37 | For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God.” |