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¹And Elihu answered and said:

²“Do you think this to be just? Do you say, ‘It is my right before God,’

³that you ask, ‘What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?’

⁴I will answer you and your friends with you.

⁵Look at the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds, which are higher than you.

⁶If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?

⁷If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand?

⁸Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself, and your righteousness a son of man.

⁹“Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out; they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.

¹⁰But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,

¹¹who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’

¹²There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evil men.

¹³Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it.

¹⁴How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!

¹⁵And now, because his anger does not punish, and he does not take much note of transgression,

¹⁶Job opens his mouth in empty talk; he multiplies words without knowledge.”

¹And Elihu continued, and said:

²“Bear with me a little, and I will show you, for I have yet something to say on God's behalf.

³I will get my knowledge from afar and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

⁴For truly my words are not false; one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

⁵“Behold, God is mighty, and does not despise any; he is mighty in strength of understanding.

⁶He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives the afflicted their right.

⁷He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne he sets them forever, and they are exalted.

⁸And if they are bound in chains and caught in the cords of affliction,

⁹then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.

¹⁰He opens their ears to instruction and commands that they return from iniquity.

¹¹If they listen and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness.

¹²But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge.

¹³“The godless in heart cherish anger; they do not cry for help when he binds them.

¹⁴They die in youth, and their life ends among the cult prostitutes.

¹⁵He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity.

¹⁶He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no cramping, and what was set on your table was full of fatness.

¹⁷“But you are full of the judgment on the wicked; judgment and justice seize you.

¹⁸Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing, and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.

¹⁹Will your cry for help avail to keep you from distress, or all the force of your strength?

²⁰Do not long for the night, when peoples vanish in their place.

²¹Take care; do not turn to iniquity, for this you have chosen rather than affliction.

²²Behold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him?

²³Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?

²⁴“Remember to extol his work, of which men have sung.

²⁵All mankind has looked on it; man beholds it from afar.

²⁶Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.

²⁷For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain,

²⁸which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly.

²⁹Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion?

³⁰Behold, he scatters his lightning about him and covers the roots 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 crashing declares his presence; the cattle also declare that he rises.

¹“At this also my heart trembles and leaps out of its place.

²Keep listening to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.

³Under the whole heaven he lets it go, and his lightning to the corners of the earth.

⁴After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard.

⁵God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend.

⁶For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour.

⁷He seals up the hand of every man, that all men whom he made may know it.

⁸Then the beasts go into their lairs, and remain in their dens.

⁹From its chamber comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds.

¹⁰By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast.

¹¹He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning.

¹²They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world.

¹³Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen.

¹⁴“Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God.

¹⁵Do you know how God lays his command upon them and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?

¹⁶Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge,

¹⁷you whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind?

¹⁸Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a cast metal mirror?

¹⁹Teach us what we shall say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of darkness.

²⁰Shall it be told him that I would speak? Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up?

²¹“And now no one looks on the light when it is bright in the skies, when the wind has passed and cleared them.

²²Out of the north comes golden splendor; God is clothed with awesome majesty.

²³The Almighty — we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.

²⁴Therefore men fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”

¹Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

²“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

³Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.

⁴“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

⁵Who determined its measurements — surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?

⁶On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone,

⁷when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸“Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb,

⁹when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band,

¹⁰and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors,

¹¹and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?

¹²“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place,

¹³that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?

¹⁴It is changed like clay under the seal, and its features stand out like a garment.

¹⁵From the wicked their light is withheld, and their uplifted arm is broken.

¹⁶“Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

¹⁸Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.

¹⁹“Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness,

²⁰that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home?

²¹You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!

²²“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,

²³which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?

²⁴What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?

²⁵“Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt,

²⁶to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man,

²⁷to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass?

²⁸“Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew?

²⁹From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven?

³⁰The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.

³¹“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?

³²Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children?

³³Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?

³⁴“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you?

³⁵Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’?

³⁶Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind?

³⁷Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,

³⁸when the dust runs into a mass and the clods stick fast together?

³⁹“Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in their thicket?

⁴¹Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God for help, and wander about for lack of food?