Elihu: there are still words to speak for Eloah
1And Elihu went on and said: 2Bear with me a little and I will show you, for there are still words to speak for Eloah. 3I will fetch my knowledge from far off and give what is right to my Maker. 4Truly, my words are no lie; one flawless in knowledge stands here with you. 5See, God is mighty, and rejects no one; he is mighty in strength of heart. 6He does not keep the wicked alive, and he gives the afflicted their right. 7He does not take his eyes off the righteous; he seats them with kings on the throne, seats them forever, and they are lifted high. 8And if they are bound in irons, caught in the cords of affliction, 9he tells them what they have done, their rebellions, how they grew strong, 10he opens their ear to correction and tells them to turn back from iniquity. 11If they listen and serve, they finish their days in good things, their years in pleasant ones. 12And if they do not listen, they cross over by the spear and breathe their last without knowledge. 13The godless in heart store up anger; they do not cry for help when he binds them. 14Their soul dies in youth, and their life ends among the temple prostitutes.
He rescues the afflicted by his affliction
15He rescues the afflicted by his affliction and opens their ear in oppression. 16He was drawing you too out of the jaws of distress into an open place with nothing to hem you in, and your table would have been laid with rich food. 17But you are full of the case against the wicked; case and judgment have taken hold of you. 18Beware that wrath does not lure you into scoffing; let no great ransom turn you aside. 19Will your cry for help set you out of distress, or all the straining of your strength?* 20Do not long for the night, when peoples are carried off from their place. 21Take care, do not turn to iniquity; for this is what you have chosen instead of affliction. 22See, God towers up in his power. Who teaches as he teaches? 23Who has laid out his way for him? Who has ever said, “You have done wrong”? 24Remember to make his work great, the work that people have sung. 25All men have looked at it; the mortal gazes at it from far off.
God is great, beyond our knowing
26See, God is great, beyond our knowing; the number of his years cannot be searched out. 27For he draws up the drops of water; they distill as rain into his mist, 28which the clouds pour down, sprinkling on man in abundance. 29Can anyone understand the spreading of a cloud, the crash out of his shelter? 30See, he spreads his light around him and covers the roots of the sea. 31By these he judges the peoples; by these he gives food in plenty. 32He covers his palms with lightning and orders it against the mark. 33Its crash tells of him; even the cattle tell of what is coming up.*
Notes
- 36:19 — The Hebrew of verses 19 and 20 is obscure: the words are clear one by one, their construction is not, and the ancient versions differ. It is translated to the letter, without choosing among the readings.
- 36:33 — The Hebrew here is obscure too. To the letter: “its crash tells of him; the cattle, too, of what is coming up”. The word rendered “what is coming up” is also read “iniquity”, and the ancient versions heard a moral saying here rather than a storm. It is translated to the letter, and not decided.
