Job 36

New Century Version

² “Listen to me a little longer, and I will show you
    that there is more to be said for God.
³ What I know comes from far away.
    I will show that my Maker is right.
⁴ You can be sure that my words are not false;
    one who really knows is with you.

⁵ “God is powerful, but he does not hate people;
    he is powerful and sure of what he wants to do.
⁶ He will not keep evil people alive,
    but he gives the poor their rights.
⁷ He always watches over those who do right;
    he sets them on thrones with kings
    and they are honored forever.
⁸ If people are bound in chains,
    or if trouble, like ropes, ties them up,
⁹ God tells them what they have done,
    that they have sinned in their pride.
¹⁰ God makes them listen to his warning
    and commands them to change from doing evil.
¹¹ If they obey and serve him,
    the rest of their lives will be successful,
    and the rest of their years will be happy.
¹² But if they do not listen,
    they will die by the sword,
    and they will die without knowing why.

¹³ “Those who have wicked hearts hold on to anger.
    Even when God punishes them, they do not cry for help.
¹⁴ They die while they are still young,
    and their lives end in disgrace.
¹⁵ But God saves those who suffer through their suffering;
    he gets them to listen through their pain.

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.
¹⁷ But now you are being punished like the wicked;
    you are getting justice.
¹⁸ Be careful! Don’t be led away from God by riches;
    don’t let much money turn you away.
¹⁹ Neither your wealth nor all your great strength
    will keep you out of trouble.
²⁰ Don’t wish for the night
    when people are taken from their homes.
²¹ Be careful not to turn to evil,
    which you seem to want more than suffering.

²² “God is great and powerful;
    no other teacher is like him.
²³ No one has planned his ways for him;
    no one can say to God, ‘You have done wrong.’
²⁴ Remember to praise his work,
    about which people have sung.
²⁵ Everybody has seen it;
    people look at it from far off.
²⁶ God is so great, greater than we can understand!
    No one knows how old he is.

²⁷ “He evaporates the drops of water from the earth
    and turns them into rain.
²⁸ The rain then pours down from the clouds,
    and showers fall on people.
²⁹ No one understands how God spreads out the clouds
    or how he sends thunder from where he lives.
³⁰ Watch how God scatters his lightning around him,
    lighting up the deepest parts of the sea.
³¹ This is the way God governs the nations;
    this is how he gives us enough food.
³² God fills his hands with lightning
    and commands it to strike its target.
³³ His thunder announces the coming storm,
    and even the cattle know it is near.