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34:1  Elihu continued speaking:
34:2  “Hear my words, you sages! Listen to me, you who know so much!
34:3  For the ear tests words, just as the palate tastes food.
34:4  Let’s choose for ourselves what is just; let’s decide among ourselves what is good.
34:5  For Iyov says, ‘I am in the right, but God is denying me justice.
34:6  Against justice, I am considered a liar; my wound is mortal, though I committed no crime.’
34:7  “Is there a man like Iyov, who drinks in scoffing like water,
34:8  who keeps company with evildoers and goes with wicked men,
34:9  since he thinks, ‘It profits a person nothing to be in accord with God’?
34:10  “So listen to me, you men with sense! Far be it from God to do anything wicked!
34:11  For he pays people back for what they do and sees that each gets what his conduct deserves.
34:12  It is certain that God does nothing wicked; Shaddai will not pervert justice.
34:13  Did someone else put him in charge of the earth? Who else established the entire world?
34:14  If he were to take back man’s heart to himself, if he gathered to himself his spirit and breath;
34:15  all flesh would instantly perish, everyone would return to dust.
34:16  “If you have any sense, [Iyov,] hear this; listen to what I am saying.
34:17  Should a hater of justice be in control? If you wouldn’t tell a king, ‘You’re a scoundrel!’ or nobles, ‘You are wicked men!’ then you shouldn’t condemn the Just and Mighty One,
34:18  Should a hater of justice be in control? If you wouldn’t tell a king, ‘You’re a scoundrel!’ or nobles, ‘You are wicked men!’ then you shouldn’t condemn the Just and Mighty One,
34:19  who is neither partial toward princes nor favors the rich over the poor, since they all are the work of his hands.
34:20  They may die in a moment, in the middle of the night — the people are shaken and pass away, the mighty are removed without human hands.
34:21  For he keeps watch on a person’s ways; he sees his every step.
34:22  There is no darkness, no death-like gloom, where wrongdoers can hide;
34:23  for he doesn’t give warning to people when they must appear before God in judgment.
34:24  He shatters the mighty without needing to investigate and sets up others in their place.
34:25  Therefore, aware of what they are doing, he overturns them by night, and they are crushed.
34:26  He strikes them as if they were common criminals in the open sight of others,
34:27  because they turned away from following him and gave no thought to any of his ways,
34:28  thereby bringing before him the cries of the poor; and he hears the cries of the oppressed.
34:29  “But if God is silent, who can accuse him; if he hides his face, who can see him? He may do this to nations and persons alike,
34:30  so that godless men will not become kings, and the people will not be lured into traps.
34:31  “For has anyone said to God, ‘I have been chastised without having offended;
34:32  teach me what I have failed to see; and if I have done wrong, I will do it no more’?
34:33  Must his rewards meet your approval? Well, you are the one who doesn’t like them, so you, not I, should pick the alternative; come on, say what you think!
34:34  Intelligent people will tell me, every wise man who hears me will say,
34:35  ‘Iyov is speaking without thinking; his words lack discernment.’
34:36  “I wish Iyov would be kept on trial forever, because he answers like wicked men.
34:37  For now to his sin he adds rebellion; he [mockingly] claps his hands among us and keeps adding to his words against God.”