Job 34 - ESV Bible - Then Elihu answered and said: "Hear my words, you...

1 Then Elihu answered and said:

2 "Hear my words, you wise men, and give ear to me, you who know;

3 for ¹the ear tests words as the palate tastes food.

4 Let us choose ²what is right; let us know among ourselves what is good.

5 For Job has said, 'I am ³in the right, and ⁴God has taken away my right;

6 in spite of my right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am ⁵without transgression.'

7 What man is like Job, who ⁶drinks up scoffing like water,

8 who travels in company with evildoers and walks ⁷with wicked men?

9 For ⁸he has said, 'It profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God.'

10 "Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding: far be it from God that he should ⁹do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong.

11 For according to ¹⁰the work of a man he will repay him, and ¹¹according to his ways he will make it befall him.

12 Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and ¹²the Almighty will not pervert justice.

13 Who gave him charge over the earth, and who ¹³laid on him^a the whole world?

14 If he should ¹⁴set his heart to it and ¹⁵gather to himself his ¹⁶spirit and his breath,

15 all flesh would perish together, and man would ¹⁷return to dust.

16 "If you have understanding, hear this; listen to what I say.

17 ¹⁸Shall one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty,

18 who ¹⁹says to a king, 'Worthless one,' and to nobles, 'Wicked man,'

19 who ²⁰shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich ²¹more than the poor, for ²²they are all the work of his hands?

20 In a moment ²³they die; at ²⁴midnight the people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away by ²⁵no human hand.

21 "For his eyes are on ²⁶the ways of a man, and he sees all his ²⁷steps.

22 There is no ²⁸gloom or ²⁹deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves.

23 For God^b has no need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in ³⁰judgment.

24 He ³¹shatters the mighty without investigation and sets ³²others in their place.

25 Thus, knowing their works, he ³³overturns them in the night, and they are crushed.

26 He strikes them for their wickedness in a place for all to see,

27 because they turned aside from ³⁴following him and had no regard for any of his ways,

28 so that they ³⁵caused the cry of the poor to come to him, and he ³⁶heard 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 a man?--

30 that a godless man should not reign, that he should not ensnare the people.

31 "For has anyone said to God, 'I have borne punishment; I will not offend any more;

32 ³⁷teach me what I do not see; if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more'?

33 Will he then make repayment to suit you, because you reject it? For you must choose, and not I; therefore ³⁸declare what you know.^c

34 Men of understanding will say to me, and the wise man who hears me will say:

35 'Job ³⁹speaks without knowledge; his words are without insight.'

36 Would that Job were tried to the end, because he answers like wicked men.

37 For he adds rebellion to his sin; he ⁴⁰claps his hands among us and multiplies his words against God."

Job 34 ESV