BibleInTonguesWEB
Job 36
Elihu, the youngest speaker, asks Job to bear with him while he speaks "on God's behalf" (v.2), then argues that suffering is God's instruction: he opens the afflicted person's ear in oppression so they turn from pride. The chapter pivots midway from courtroom argument to a hymn about rain, clouds, and lightning. Watch the turn around verse 26: Elihu stops accusing Job and starts marveling at how God draws up water drops that distill as rain. The thunder he describes here sets up the storm that arrives in chapter 37.
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Elihu also continued, and said,
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“Bear with me a little, and I will show you; for I still have something to say on God’s behalf.
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I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
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For truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
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“Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding.
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He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked, but gives justice to the afflicted.
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He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
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If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions,
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then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.
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He also opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity.
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If they listen and serve him, they will spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.
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But if they don’t listen, they will perish by the sword; they will die without knowledge.
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“But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them.
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They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean.
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He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in oppression.
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Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a wide place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.
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“But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you.
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Don’t let riches entice you to wrath, neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.
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Would your wealth sustain you in distress, or all the might of your strength?
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Don’t desire the night, when people are cut off in their place.
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Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction.
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Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?
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Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness’?
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“Remember that you magnify his work, about which men have sung.
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All men have looked on it. Man sees it afar off.
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Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.
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For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor,
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which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly.
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Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunderings of his pavilion?
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Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea.
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For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance.
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He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark.
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Its noise tells about him, and the livestock also, concerning the storm that comes up.
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Y AÑADIÓ Eliú, y dijo:
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Espérame un poco, y enseñarte he; porque todavía tengo razones en orden á Dios.
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Tomaré mi noticia de lejos, y atribuiré justicia á mi Hacedor.
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Porque de cierto no son mentira mis palabras; contigo está el que es íntegro en sus conceptos.
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He aquí que Dios es grande, mas no desestima á nadie: es poderoso en fuerza de sabiduría.
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No otorgará vida al impío, y á los afligidos dará su derecho.
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No quitará sus ojos del justo; antes bien con los reyes los pondrá en solio para siempre, y serán ensalzados.
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Y si estuvieren prendidos en grillos, y aprisionados en las cuerdas de aflicción,
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El les dará á conocer la obra de ellos, y que prevalecieron sus rebeliones.
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Despierta además el oído de ellos para la corrección, y díce les que se conviertan de la iniquidad.
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Si oyeren, y le sirvieren, acabarán sus días en bien, y sus años en deleites.
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Mas si no oyeren, serán pasados á cuchillo, y perecerán sin sabiduría.
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Empero los hipócritas de corazón lo irritarán más, y no clamarán cuando él los atare.
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Fallecerá el alma de ellos en su mocedad, y su vida entre los sodomitas.
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Al pobre librará de su pobreza, y en la aflicción despertará su oído.
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Asimismo te apartaría de la boca de la angustia á lugar espacioso, libre de todo apuro; y te asentará mesa llena de grosura.
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Mas tú has llenado el juicio del impío, en vez de sustentar el juicio y la justicia.
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Por lo cual teme que en su ira no te quite con golpe, el cual no puedas apartar de ti con gran rescate.
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¿Hará él estima de tus riquezas, ni del oro, ni de todas las fuerzas del poder?
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No anheles la noche, en que desaparecen los pueblos de su lugar.
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Guárdate, no tornes á la iniquidad; pues ésta escogiste más bien que la aflicción.
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He aquí que Dios es excelso con su potencia: ¿qué enseñador semejante á él?
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¿Quién le ha prescrito su camino? ¿y quién le dirá: Iniquidad has hecho?
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Acuérdate de engrandecer su obra, la cual contemplan los hombres.
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Los hombres todos la ven; mírala el hombre de lejos.
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He aquí, Dios es grande, y nosotros no le conocemos; ni se puede rastrear el número de sus años.
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El reduce las gotas de las aguas, al derramarse la lluvia según el vapor;
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Las cuales destilan las nubes, goteando en abundancia sobre los hombres.
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¿Quién podrá tampoco comprender la extensión de las nubes, y el sonido estrepitoso de su pabellón?
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He aquí que sobre él extiende su luz, y cobija con ella las raíces de la mar.
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Bien que por esos medios castiga á los pueblos, á la multitud da comida.
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Con las nubes encubre la luz, y mándale no brillar , interponiendo aquéllas .
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Tocante á ella anunciará el trueno , su compañero, que hay acumulación de ira sobre el que se eleva.
Affliction as a message, not just a verdict
Elihu's distinctive claim is that bondage and pain are how God "opens their ears to instruction" (v.10). Where Job's three earlier friends treated suffering as proof of guilt, Elihu treats it as a summons to listen. He warns Job directly (v.18) not to let resentment or the lure of a bribe pull him off course.
The closing nature imagery is not a digression. By moving from human discipline to the lightning God "commands to strike the mark" (v.32), Elihu prepares Job to be addressed by the same power he is describing.
Context layers
Keep these closed by default and open them only when you want more context.
- JudgmentWhat judgment means in the Bible, how it relates to justice, mercy, and final accountability, and where to read it without flattening it into threat or embarrassment.
- RighteousnessWhat righteousness means in the Bible, how it relates to justice and right standing, and why it cannot be reduced to private morality.
- Isaiah 33:22Key passage connected to Judgment.
- Romans 2:5-8Key passage connected to Judgment.
- Revelation 20:11-15Key passage connected to Judgment.
- Matthew 5:6Key passage connected to Righteousness.
- Romans 3:21-26Key passage connected to Righteousness.
- Philippians 3:8-9Key passage connected to Righteousness.
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