² “Bear with me a little, and I will show you,
    for I have yet something to say on God's behalf.
³ I will get my knowledge from afar
    and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
⁴ For truly my words are not false;
    one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

⁵ “Behold, God is mighty, and does not despise any;
    he is mighty in strength of understanding.
⁶ He does not keep the wicked alive,
    but gives the afflicted their right.
⁷ He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous,
    but with kings on the throne
    he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
⁸ And if they are bound in chains
    and caught in the cords of affliction,
⁹ then he declares to them their work
    and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.
¹⁰ He opens their ears to instruction
    and commands that they return from iniquity.
¹¹ If they listen and serve him,
    they complete their days in prosperity,
    and their years in pleasantness.
¹² But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword
    and die without knowledge.

¹³ “The godless in heart cherish anger;
    they do not cry for help when he binds them.
¹⁴ They die in youth,
    and their life ends among the cult prostitutes.
¹⁵ He delivers the afflicted by their affliction
    and opens their ear by adversity.
¹⁶ He also allured you out of distress
    into a broad place where there was no cramping,
    and what was set on your table was full of fatness.

¹⁷ “But you are full of the judgment on the wicked;
    judgment and justice seize you.
¹⁸ Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing,
    and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.
¹⁹ Will your cry for help avail to keep you from distress,
    or all the force of your strength?
²⁰ Do not long for the night,
    when peoples vanish in their place.
²¹ Take care; do not turn to iniquity,
    for this you have chosen rather than affliction.
²² Behold, God is exalted in his power;
    who is a teacher like him?
²³ Who has prescribed for him his way,
    or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?

²⁴ “Remember to extol his work,
    of which men have sung.
²⁵ All mankind has looked on it;
    man beholds it from afar.
²⁶ Behold, God is great, and we know him not;
    the number of his years is unsearchable.
²⁷ For he draws up the drops of water;
    they distill his mist in rain,
²⁸ which the skies pour down
    and drop on mankind abundantly.
²⁹ Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds,
    the thunderings of his pavilion?
³⁰ Behold, he scatters his lightning about him
    and covers the roots of the sea.
³¹ For by these he judges peoples;
    he gives food in abundance.
³² He covers his hands with the lightning
    and commands it to strike the mark.
³³ Its crashing declares his presence;^a]">[a]
    the cattle also declare that he rises.

¹⁴ “Hear this, O Job;
    stop and consider the wondrous works of God.
¹⁵ Do you know how God lays his command upon them
    and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
¹⁶ Do you know the balancings^c]">[c] of the clouds,
    the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge,
¹⁷ you whose garments are hot
    when the earth is still because of the south wind?
¹⁸ Can you, like him, spread out the skies,
    hard as a cast metal mirror?
¹⁹ Teach us what we shall say to him;
    we cannot draw up our case because of darkness.
²⁰ Shall it be told him that I would speak?
    Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up?

²¹ “And now no one looks on the light
    when it is bright in the skies,
    when the wind has passed and cleared them.
²² Out of the north comes golden splendor;
    God is clothed with awesome majesty.
²³ The Almighty—we cannot find him;
    he is great in power;
    justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.
²⁴ Therefore men fear him;
    he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”^d]">[d]