36:2 “Listen to me a little longer, and I will show you that there is more to be said for God.
36:3 What I know comes from far away. I will show that my Maker is right.
36:4 You can be sure that my words are not false; one who really knows is with you.
36:5 “God is powerful, but he does not hate people; he is powerful and sure of what he wants to do.
36:6 He will not keep evil people alive, but he gives the poor their rights.
36:7 He always watches over those who do right; he sets them on thrones with kings and they are honored forever.
36:8 If people are bound in chains, or if trouble, like ropes, ties them up,
36:9 God tells them what they have done, that they have sinned in their pride.
36:10 God makes them listen to his warning and commands them to change from doing evil.
36:11 If they obey and serve him, the rest of their lives will be successful, and the rest of their years will be happy.
36:12 But if they do not listen, they will die by the sword, and they will die without knowing why.
36:13 “Those who have wicked hearts hold on to anger. Even when God punishes them, they do not cry for help.
36:14 They die while they are still young, and their lives end in disgrace.
36:15 But God saves those who suffer through their suffering; he gets them to listen through their pain.
36:16 “God is gently calling you from the jaws of trouble to an open place of freedom where he has set your table full of the best food.
36:17 But now you are being punished like the wicked; you are getting justice.
36:18 Be careful! Don’t be led away from God by riches; don’t let much money turn you away.
36:19 Neither your wealth nor all your great strength will keep you out of trouble.
36:20 Don’t wish for the night when people are taken from their homes.
36:21 Be careful not to turn to evil, which you seem to want more than suffering.
36:22 “God is great and powerful; no other teacher is like him.
36:23 No one has planned his ways for him; no one can say to God, ‘You have done wrong.’
36:24 Remember to praise his work, about which people have sung.
36:25 Everybody has seen it; people look at it from far off.
36:26 God is so great, greater than we can understand! No one knows how old he is.
36:27 “He evaporates the drops of water from the earth and turns them into rain.
36:28 The rain then pours down from the clouds, and showers fall on people.
36:29 No one understands how God spreads out the clouds or how he sends thunder from where he lives.
36:30 Watch how God scatters his lightning around him, lighting up the deepest parts of the sea.
36:31 This is the way God governs the nations; this is how he gives us enough food.
36:32 God fills his hands with lightning and commands it to strike its target.
36:33 His thunder announces the coming storm, and even the cattle know it is near.
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