Old Testament · Poetry and wisdom

Job chapter 34

Then Elihu again:Hear my words, . You who know things, give me your ears.Because the ear words the way the mouth tastes food.So let us pick out for ourselves . Let us work out among ourselves what is good.Because Job has said, “, and God has taken my case away from me.”“Against my own case I am made out a liar. will not heal, and I never with him.”What man is there like Job, who ,who keeps company with people who do harm and walks along with guilty men?Because he has said, “A man , being on good terms with God.”So listen to me, you . It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would twist anything.Because what a man does, he pays him back for. Whatever road a man walks, he makes it catch up with him.Yes — truly — God does not do wrong, and the Almighty does not .Who handed him the earth to look after? Who laid the whole world in his lap?If he ever turned his mind on us alone, if he pulled back into himself,every living thing would stop breathing at once, and the human would .And if you have any understanding, hear this. Give an ear to the sound of my words.Can a man who hates fair dealing at all? Are you going to condemn the one who is mighty and right?Do you say to a king, “You are ” — to the men at the top, “You are guilty”?He . He does not notice the rich man ahead of the poor one, because every one of them is the work of his hands.In one moment they are dead, in the middle of the night. A whole people is shaken and gone. The strong man is taken away, and no hand touches him.Because his eyes are on the roads a man takes. He sees every step he makes.There is no dark, no , for people who do harm to hide in.Because he does not have to to come and stand before God in court.He breaks powerful men without holding an inquiry and stands other men up in their place.So — because he knows exactly what they have done — he turns the night over on them, and they are crushed.He strikes them down for being guilty in a place where everyone can watch.Because they turned aside from following him and would not a single road of his,so that the cry of the poor came up to him, and he heard the screaming of the beaten-down.And when he stays still, who can find fault? When he , who can catch sight of him? It works the same over a nation and over one man —keeping off the throne, keeping traps out of the road the people walk.Because — has anyone actually said to God, “I have taken what was coming to me. I will do no more damage.What I cannot see for myself, teach me. If I have done something twisted, I will not do it again”?Should he settle up on your terms, just because you refuse his? You are the one who has to choose here, not me. So say it. Say what it is you know.Men with a head on their shoulders will tell me, will say,“Job is talking without knowing anything. There is no understanding in a word of it.” is for Job to be tested all the way to the end, because his answers are the answers of men who do harm.Because he piles . He and goes on stacking up words against God.