Elihu proclaims God's goodness
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Elihu also continued, and said,
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“Bear with me a little, and I will show you; for I still have something to say on God’s behalf.
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I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
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For truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
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“Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding.
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He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked, but gives justice to the afflicted.
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He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
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If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions,
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then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.
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He also opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity.
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If they listen and serve him, they will spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.
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But if they don’t listen, they will perish by the sword; they will die without knowledge.
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“But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them.
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They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean.
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He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in oppression.
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Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a wide place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.
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“But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you.
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Don’t let riches entice you to wrath, neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.
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Would your wealth sustain you in distress, or all the might of your strength?
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Don’t desire the night, when people are cut off in their place.
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Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction.
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Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?
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Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness’?
Elihu proclaims God's majesty
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“Remember that you magnify his work, about which men have sung.
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All men have looked on it. Man sees it afar off.
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Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.
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For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor,
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which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly.
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Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunderings of his pavilion?
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Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea.
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For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance.
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He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark.
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Its noise tells about him, and the livestock also, concerning the storm that comes up.