Job Chapter 36
Showing all 33 verses for Job Chapter 36.
The People's Bible is written by people, for the people. Each verse below shows:
"Elihu also proceeded, and said, "
"Elihu continued speaking."
Stay patient with someone who has more to say, even if you've heard plenty already - sometimes the most valuable part of what a person means to say comes later, not first.
" me a little, and I will shew thee that I have yet to speak on God’s behalf. "
💡 Highlighted words feature Jacobean 1611 tooltips to clarify shifted 17th-century English terms.
"Elihu says: Bear with me a little longer, and I'll show you there is more to say on God's behalf."
Be cautious of anyone who claims total certainty about speaking 'on God's behalf'. Stay humble about how much any of us can fully represent the truth of things beyond us.
"I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker. "
"I will draw my knowledge from far and wide, and I will show that my Maker is right."
Good intentions don't guarantee a good application. Wanting to defend truth and goodness is admirable - just make sure you're applying it to the actual person in front of you, not a theory about them.
"For truly my words shall not be false: he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee. "
"My words are truly not false; someone with complete knowledge is speaking with you."
Be wary of anyone - including yourself - who claims to have it all figured out about why suffering happens. Real wisdom usually comes with some humility built in.
"Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any: he is mighty in strength and wisdom. "
"God is mighty, yet He doesn't look down on or reject anyone; He's mighty in both strength and understanding."
The measure of real strength isn't how much you can look down on others - it's how gently you can treat people who have no power over you at all. That's the kind of strength I want you to have.
"He preserveth not the life of the wicked: but giveth right to the poor. "
"He does not let the wicked live on unchecked, but He gives justice to the poor."
Don't lose hope that injustice has a shelf life, even when it seems to be winning right now. And if you have any power at all, use it to make sure the poor around you get fair treatment.
"He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous: but with kings are they on the throne; yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted. "
"He doesn't take His eyes off the righteous; He seats them with kings on the throne, establishing them forever and lifting them up."
Don't measure whether I'm watching over you by whether your life currently looks like a throne. Sometimes the reward for faithfulness is a slow unfolding - stay faithful anyway.
"And if they be bound in festers, and be holden in cords of affliction; "
"And if they are bound in chains, held by the ropes of suffering..."
Suffering doesn't automatically mean you did something wrong - sometimes even people living rightly find themselves bound by hardship. Don't let anyone convince you your pain is proof of hidden guilt.
"Then he sheweth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded. "
"Then He shows them what they've done, the ways they've overstepped."
Sometimes hardship shows you things about yourself you couldn't see in comfort. Don't waste it - but don't assume every hard season is a lesson about your own failings either; some simply aren't.
"He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity. "
"He opens their ears to correction and tells them to turn away from wrongdoing."
If hardship has ever made you finally listen to something you needed to hear, you know this is true. I don't send suffering to punish you, but I can use even hard seasons to open your ears if you let them.
"If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. "
"If they listen and serve Him, they'll live out their days in prosperity and their years in contentment."
A life that listens and stays teachable tends to find its way to genuine peace, even after hard seasons. Keep your ears open, and don't let bitterness close the door on the good that can still come.
"But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge. "
"But if they don't listen, they'll perish by violence, dying without ever gaining understanding."
Don't let hardship pass you by without learning anything from it - that's the real tragedy, not the hardship itself, but a heart too closed to grow through it.
"But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he bindeth them. "
"But the godless in heart store up anger; they don't cry out for help even when He binds them."
When life gets hard, don't let your heart go quiet and bitter instead of honest and open. Cry out - to me, to people who love you - rather than silently stockpiling resentment.
"They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean. "
"They die young, their life spent among the degraded."
A life spent refusing to grow or listen tends to waste itself, however long or short it turns out to be. I want more for you than a wasted life - open your heart before bitterness spends it for you.
"He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression. "
"He rescues the poor through their affliction, and opens their ears through their oppression."
Some of your deepest growth may come precisely through the hardest chapters of your life, not despite them. That doesn't make suffering good in itself - but it means nothing you go through has to be wasted.
"Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness. "
"Elihu tells Job: In the same way, He would have moved you out of hardship into a wide open place free of restriction, with your table spread full of rich food."
Hold onto hope that hardship isn't the final word for your life. Just don't let anyone tell you exactly what you must believe or say to earn that turnaround; healing comes on its own timeline.
"But thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked: judgment and justice take hold on thee. "
"But you have taken on the judgement due the wicked; judgement and justice have gripped hold of you."
Don't confuse someone's honest protest against unfair suffering with actual wrongdoing. Pain sometimes makes people say hard, raw things - that's not the same as becoming wicked.
"Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee. "
"Because there is wrath, be careful that He doesn't take you away with a single blow - then even a great ransom couldn't save you."
I don't use fear of sudden destruction to pressure people into compliance - that's not how love works. Be suspicious of anyone who tries to frighten you into agreement rather than gently persuading you.
"Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength. "
"Will He value your riches? No - not gold, nor all your strength and might."
Don't ever think your money, status or strength can buy you out of accountability or purchase real worth in my eyes. What matters to me is your heart, not your bank balance.
"Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place. "
"Don't long for the cover of night, when people are suddenly cut off where they stand."
If you've ever wished for an easy escape from unbearable pain, I understand that longing more than you know - but I want you held through the darkness, not swallowed by it.
"Take heed, regard not iniquity: for this hast thou chosen rather than affliction. "
"Be careful, don't turn towards wrongdoing - because that is what you've chosen instead of enduring your suffering."
Honest lament isn't the same as choosing wrongdoing over patience. I never ask you to fake calm acceptance of pain that's genuinely unbearable - real trust can include real protest.
"Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him? "
"Elihu says: See how God is exalted in His power - who teaches like Him?"
Sometimes the best way through an unanswerable question is to step back and marvel at something larger than the argument itself. Let wonder do some of the work reasoning alone can't finish.
"Who hath enjoined him his way? or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity? "
"Who has ever assigned God His path, or told Him, 'You have done wrong'?"
There are things about how the world works that you and I simply don't get to redesign or overrule - our job is to trust and to live well within it, not to sit in judgement over it.
"Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold. "
"Remember to honour His work, which people everywhere observe and celebrate."
Wonder and gratitude are real medicine - but they work best offered freely, not demanded from someone still in the middle of raw grief. Let people grieve fully before you ask them to marvel.
"Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off. "
"Everyone can see it; people observe it even from a distance."
Wonder doesn't require special insider access - a starry sky, a storm, a sunrise are available to everyone equally. Take the time to actually look.
"Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out. "
"See how great God is - we can't fully know Him, and the number of His years can't be worked out."
It's okay - good, even - to hold some genuine mystery about the biggest questions in life. You don't need to have it all figured out to live with trust and wonder.
"For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof: "
"He draws up drops of water, distilling them into rain from the mist."
Even the rain falling outside your window is part of something vast and precisely ordered - take a moment to notice the everyday miracles you usually walk past without a glance.
"Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly. "
"The clouds pour it down and let it fall abundantly on humanity."
Notice how much of what sustains your life - rain, sun, air - was never something you earned; it simply falls, freely, on everyone. Let that generosity shape how freely you give to others.
"Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle? "
"Can anyone truly understand how the clouds spread out, or the thunder from His dwelling place?"
It's alright not to understand everything, even things you see every day. Some mysteries are meant to be marvelled at rather than solved.
"Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, and covereth the bottom of the sea. "
"See how He spreads His light around Himself, and covers the depths of the sea."
There's nowhere - not the sky above, not the depths below - that's outside the reach of love and care. Let that reassure you, wherever you currently feel furthest from help.
"For by them judgeth he the people; he giveth meat in abundance. "
"By these He governs the nations, and provides food in abundance."
The next meal on your table is connected to processes far bigger than you - rain, seasons, soil. Let a little gratitude touch even your most ordinary meals.
"With clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt. "
"He fills His hands with lightning, and directs it precisely where it should strike."
What looks chaotic and frightening from where you're standing may still be part of something ordered you simply can't see the shape of yet. That's an invitation to keep trusting even amid what looks uncontrolled.
"The noise thereof sheweth concerning it, the cattle also concerning the vapour. "
"The thunder announces the storm's approach; even the livestock sense it coming."
Sometimes you can feel something significant approaching before you can explain it - trust that instinct, and stay open to what's coming rather than bracing only for what's already familiar.