Job 36

Elihu went on speaking. He said:

1Elihu also proceeded, and said,

NoteElihu is the fourth and last of Job's human speakers, a younger man who has been talking without interruption since chapter 32, after the three friends (Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar) ran out of answers. The "you" he addresses throughout is Job.

2Be patient with me a little longer, and I will show you that there is still more to say on God's behalf.

2Suffer me a little, and I will shew thee that I have yet to speak on God’s behalf.

3I will bring my knowledge from far off, and I will show that my Maker is in the right.

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

Note"From far off" is an idiom for reaching wide for one's material (from distant places, old traditions, long experience), rather than repeating what is close at hand.

4My words are truly not false. One who is complete in knowledge is here with you.

4For truly my words shall not be false: he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee.

NoteIt is deliberately unclear who "one who is complete in knowledge" is. Elihu may be claiming it for himself, since he has just vouched for his own words; or he may mean God, standing present with Job. Hebrew commentators have read it both ways.

5Look, God is mighty, but he does not look down on anyone. He is mighty in strength and in understanding.

5Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any: he is mighty in strength and wisdom.

NoteThe Hebrew behind "understanding" is literally "strength of heart." In Hebrew the heart is the seat of the mind and judgment, not the emotions, so the line pairs physical power with mental power.

6He does not keep the wicked alive, but he gives justice to those who are suffering.

6He preserveth not the life of the wicked: but giveth right to the poor.

7He does not take his eyes off those who do right. He seats them with kings on the throne. He makes them secure forever, and they are lifted high.

7He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous: but with kings are they on the throne; yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted.

8And if people are tied up in chains and held fast by the ropes of suffering,

8And if they be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction;

9then he shows them what they have done, and how proudly they have broken his commands.

9Then he sheweth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded.

10He also opens their ears to correction, and orders them to turn away from doing wrong.

10He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity.

11If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days doing well, and their years in happiness.

11If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.

12But if they do not obey, they will die by the sword, and they will die without ever understanding.

12But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.

13Those with no love for God in their hearts store up anger. Even when he ties them up, they do not cry out for help.

13But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he bindeth them.

Note"Store up anger" is ambiguous in the Hebrew. It can mean these people nurse their own resentment, or that they pile up God's anger against themselves like a debt coming due.

14They die while they are still young. Their life comes to an end among the men who serve as prostitutes at a shrine.

14They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean.

NoteThis refers to the men attached to shrines of the fertility gods of Canaan, who took part in sexual rites as part of the worship. Israelite law banned the practice outright, so naming them is a way of saying these men die young and disgraced, at the very bottom of respectable society.

15God rescues the suffering by means of their suffering. He opens their ears while they are being crushed.

15He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression.

NoteThe Hebrew repeats the same word twice on purpose: God rescues the afflicted *by* their affliction. The suffering is not only what they are saved from but the means of saving them.

16In the same way he was drawing you out of a tight place into a wide, open space where nothing hems you in. What was set on your table would have been rich food.

16Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness.

Note"A tight place" and "a wide, open space" are standard Hebrew images for distress and relief, being hemmed in with no room to move, versus open ground where one can breathe. Whether Elihu means God was in the middle of doing this for Job, or would have done it, is disputed; the Hebrew allows both.

17But now you are loaded down with the sentence the wicked deserve. Judgment and justice have taken hold of you.

17But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked: judgment and justice take hold on thee.

18Because there is anger, be careful that no blow sweeps you away. Once it falls, even a large ransom could not set you free.

18Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.

NoteA ransom was the payment made to buy a person out of a penalty or out of slavery. The verse is one of the hardest in the book; some read it as a warning that no sum will buy Job off once the blow falls, others as a warning not to let a large bribe pull him off course.

19Will your riches be worth anything to him? No, not gold, and not all your mighty effort.

19Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength.

20Do not long for the night, when people are taken away from where they live.

20Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place.

NoteThe Hebrew here is obscure. "The night" is most often taken as the darkness of death (Job has repeatedly wished to die) or as the night in which whole peoples are swept away in a single stroke, the way a city falls in the dark.

21Be careful. Do not turn toward doing wrong, for you have chosen this instead of accepting your suffering.

21Take heed, regard not iniquity: for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction.

NoteElihu's charge is that Job, faced with a choice between enduring his suffering and turning against God, has leaned toward the second. The Hebrew is compressed and the sense is argued over.

22Look, God is lifted high by his power. Who is a teacher like him?

22Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him?

23Who has told him which way to go? Who can say to him, You have done wrong?

23Who hath enjoined him his way? or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity?

24Remember to praise his work, which people have sung about.

24Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold.

NoteThe "work" is God's work in the created world, which verses 26 onward go on to describe. "Sung about" points to the hymns people composed praising it.

25Everyone has seen it. People look at it from far away.

25Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off.

26Look, God is great, beyond what we can know. No one can count up the number of his years.

26Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.

27He draws up the drops of water. They fall as rain from the mist,

27For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof:

NoteVerses 27–28 give the ancient picture of the water cycle as it looked from the ground: water drawn up from below, condensing into mist, then falling back as rain. It is observation, not a theory of evaporation.

28which the clouds pour out. They shower it down on people in plenty.

28Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly.

29And can anyone understand how the clouds spread out, or how the thunder rolls from the tent where he lives?

29Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?

NoteGod's dwelling is pictured as a tent, a portable pavilion, with the storm clouds as its canopy and the thunder as the noise coming from inside it.

30Look, he scatters his lightning around himself, and he covers the depths of the sea.

30Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, and covereth the bottom of the sea.

Note"His light" means lightning, as it does again in verses 32. The second half of the line is difficult: the Hebrew says he covers the roots or depths of the sea, which may mean the lightning lights up even the sea floor, or that the storm veils it.

31By these things he judges the nations, and he gives food in plenty.

31For by them judgeth he the people; he giveth meat in abundance.

Note"These things" are the rain and lightning of the preceding verses. The same storm does both jobs: it is how God brings nations to account and how he feeds them, since rain meant harvest.

32He fills his hands with the lightning and orders it to strike its target.

32With clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt.

NoteThe image is of a warrior filling his hands with a weapon and hurling it. The Hebrew literally says he covers his hands with light: that is, with the lightning bolt he is about to throw.

33The thunder tells that he is there. Even the cattle make known that a storm is rising.

33The noise thereof sheweth concerning it, the cattle also concerning the vapour.

NoteThe Hebrew of this verse is among the most damaged and obscure in the book. It seems to say that the thunder itself announces the storm's approach, and that even the livestock in the field sense it coming.