Job - Chapter 34 - A Conservative Version
- Moreover Elihu answered, and said,
- Hear my words, ye wise men, and give ear to me, ye who have knowledge.
- For the ear tries words as the palate tastes food.
- Let us choose for us that which is right. Let us know among ourselves what is good.
- For Job has said, I am righteous, and God has taken away my right.
- Notwithstanding my right I am [accounted] a liar. My wound is incurable, [though I am] without transgression.
- What man is like Job, who drinks up scorning like water,
- saying, I have not sinned, nor committed unrighteousness, nor had fellowship with workers of iniquity to go with the profane.
- For thou should not say, There shall be no visitation to a man, [whereas] visitation [is] to him from LORD.
- Therefore hearken to me, ye men of understanding. Far be it from me to sin before LORD, and pervert righteousness before the Almighty.
- For the work of a man he will render to him, and cause every man to find according to his ways.
- Yea, certainly God will not do wrong. Neither will the Almighty pervert justice.
- Who gave him a charge over the earth? Or who has disposed the whole world?
- If he sets his heart upon himself, [if] he gathers his spirit and his breath to himself,
- all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again to dust.
- If now [thou be] understanding, hear this. Hearken to the voice of words.
- Behold thou him who hates lawlessness, and who destroys evil men, who is forever righteousness,
- [him] who says to a king, [Thou are] vile, to ranking men, [Ye are] wicked,
- who does not respect the persons of rulers, nor regards the rich more than the poor. For they all are the work of his hands.
- In a moment they die, even at midnight. The people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away without hand.
- For his eyes are upon the ways of a man, and he sees all his goings.
- There is no darkness, nor thick gloom where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
- For he needs no further to consider a man, that he should go before God in judgment.
- He breaks in pieces mighty men [in ways] past finding out, and sets others in their stead.
- Therefore he takes knowledge of their works, and he overturns them in the night, so that they are destroyed.
- He strikes them as wicked men in the open sight of others
- because they turned aside from following him, and would not have regard in any of his ways,
- so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him, and he heard the cry of the afflicted.
- When he gives quietness, who then can condemn? And when he hides his face, who then can behold him? [It is] the same whether to a nation, or to a man,
- that the profane man not reign, that there be none to ensnare the people.
- For has any said to God, I have borne [chastisement], I will not offend [any more].
- Teach thou me that which I do not see. If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more?
- Shall his recompense be as thou desire, that thou refuse it? For thou must choose, and not I. Therefore speak what thou know.
- Men of understanding will say to me, yes, every wise man who hears me,
- Job speaks without knowledge, and his words are without wisdom.
- But surely not. Learn thou Job not to still give an answer like the foolish,
- so that we may not add to our sins, and lawlessness will be reckoned against us, speaking many words before LORD.