Job 36.28
English standard version

Le sort des justes et des coupables

¹ And Elihu continued, and said:
² Bear with me a little, and I will show you,
for I have yet something to say on God's behalf.
³ I will get my knowledge from afar
and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
⁴ For truly my words are not false;
one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
⁵ Behold, God is mighty, and does not despise any;
he is mighty in strength of understanding.
⁶ He does not keep the wicked alive,
but gives the afflicted their right.
⁷ He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous,
but with kings on the throne
he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
⁸ And if they are bound in chains
and caught in the cords of affliction,
⁹ then he declares to them their work
and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.
¹⁰ He opens their ears to instruction
and commands that they return from iniquity.
¹¹ If they listen and serve him,
they complete their days in prosperity,
and their years in pleasantness.
¹² But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword
and die without knowledge.
¹³ The godless in heart cherish anger;
they do not cry for help when he binds them.
¹⁴ They die in youth,
and their life ends among the cult prostitutes.
¹⁵ He delivers the afflicted by their affliction
and opens their ear by adversity.
¹⁶ He also allured you out of distress
into a broad place where there was no cramping,
and what was set on your table was full of fatness.
¹⁷ But you are full of the judgment on the wicked;
judgment and justice seize you.
¹⁸ Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing,
and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.
¹⁹ Will your cry for help avail to keep you from distress,
or all the force of your strength?
²⁰ Do not long for the night,
when peoples vanish in their place.
²¹ Take care; do not turn to iniquity,
for this you have chosen rather than affliction.
²² Behold, God is exalted in his power;
who is a teacher like him?
²³ Who has prescribed for him his way,
or who can say, You have done wrong?
²⁴ Remember to extol his work,
of which men have sung.
²⁵ All mankind has looked on it;
man beholds it from afar.
²⁶ Behold, God is great, and we know him not;
the number of his years is unsearchable.
²⁷ For he draws up the drops of water;
they distill his mist in rain,
²⁸ which the skies pour down
and drop on mankind abundantly.
²⁹ Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds,
the thunderings of his pavilion?
³⁰ Behold, he scatters his lightning about him
and covers the roots of the sea.
³¹ For by these he judges peoples;
he gives food in abundance.
³² He covers his hands with the lightning
and commands it to strike the mark.
³³ Its crashing declares his presence;
the cattle also declare that he rises.