Dual Panel1Elihu continued speaking:
2"Let me go on, and I will show you the truth of what I am saying. For I have not finished defending God!
3I will give you many illustrations of the righteousness of my Creator.
4I am telling you the honest truth, for I am a man of well–rounded knowledge.
5"God is mighty, yet he does not despise anyone! He is mighty in both power and understanding.
6He does not let the wicked live but gives justice to the afflicted.
7His eyes never leave the innocent, but he establishes and exalts them with kings forever.
8If troubles come upon them and they are enslaved and afflicted,
9he takes the trouble to show them the reason. He shows them their sins, for they have behaved proudly.
10He gets their attention and says they must turn away from evil.
11"If they listen and obey God, then they will be blessed with prosperity throughout their lives. All their years will be pleasant.
12But if they refuse to listen to him, they will perish in battle and die from lack of understanding.
13For the godless are full of resentment. Even when he punishes them, they refuse to cry out to him for help.
14They die young after wasting their lives in immoral living.
15But by means of their suffering, he rescues those who suffer. For he gets their attention through adversity.
16"God has led you away from danger, giving you freedom. You have prospered in a wide and pleasant valley.
17But you are too obsessed with judgment on the godless. Don’t worry, justice will be upheld.
18But watch out, or you may be seduced with wealth. Don’t let yourself be bribed into sin.
19Could all your wealth and mighty efforts keep you from distress?
20Do not long for the cover of night, for that is when people will be destroyed.
21Be on guard! Turn back from evil, for it was to prevent you from getting into a life of evil that God sent this suffering.
22"Look, God is all–powerful. Who is a teacher like him?
23No one can tell him what to do. No one can say to him, ‘You have done wrong.’
24Instead, glorify his mighty works, singing songs of praise.
25Everyone has seen these things, but only from a distance.
26"Look, God is exalted beyond what we can understand. His years are without number.
27He draws up the water vapor and then distills it into rain.
28The rain pours down from the clouds, and everyone benefits from it.
29Can anyone really understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunder that rolls forth from heaven?
30See how he spreads the lightning around him and how it lights up the depths of the sea.
31By his mighty acts he governs the people, giving them food in abundance.
32He fills his hands with lightning bolts. He hurls each at its target.
33The thunder announces his presence; the storm announces his indignant anger.