ERV -Job Chapter 34 to 36

34 Then Elihu continued talking. He said: ²“Listen to the things I say, you wise men. Pay attention to me, you smart men. ³Your tongue tastes the food it touches. And your ear tests the words it hears. ⁴So, let us test these arguments and decide for ourselves what is right. Together we will learn what is good. ⁵Job says, ‘I, Job, am innocent. And God is not fair to me. ⁶I am innocent, but the judgment against me says that I am a liar. I am innocent, but I have been hurt very badly.’ ⁷“Is there any other person like Job? Job does not care if you insult him. ⁸Job is friends with bad people. Job likes to be with evil people. ⁹Why do I say that? Because Job says, ‘A person will gain nothing if he tries to please God.’ ¹⁰“You men can understand, so listen to me. God would never do what is evil! God All-Powerful would never do wrong! ¹¹God will pay a person back for the things that person has done. God gives people what they deserve. ¹²This is the truth, God won’t do wrong. God All-Powerful will always be fair. ¹³No person chose God to be in charge over the earth. No one gave God responsibility for the whole world. {God created everything and he has always been in control.} ¹⁴If God decided to take his spirit and his breath of life away from people, ¹⁵then all the people on earth would die. All people would become dust again. ¹⁶“If you men are wise, then you will listen to what I say. ¹⁷A person that hates to be fair can’t be a ruler. Job, God is strong and good. Do you think you can judge him guilty? ¹⁸God is the One who says to kings, ‘You are worthless!’ God says to leaders, ‘You are evil!’ ¹⁹God does not love leaders more than other people. And God does not love rich people more that poor people. Why? Because God made every person. ²⁰People can suddenly die, in the middle of the night. People become sick and pass away. Even powerful people die for no apparent reason. ²¹“God watches what people do. God knows every step a person takes. ²²There is no place dark enough for evil people to hide from God. ²³God does not need to pick a time to test people some more. God does not need to bring people in front of him to be judged. ²⁴If even powerful people do bad things God does not need to ask questions. God will simply destroy those people, and choose other people to be leaders. ²⁵So God knows what people do. That is why God will defeat evil people over night and destroy them. ²⁶God will punish the bad people because of the evil things they did. And God will punish those people where other people can see it happen. ²⁷Why? Because the bad people stopped obeying God. And those bad people didn’t care about doing what God wants. ²⁸Those bad people hurt poor people, and made them cry to God for help. And God hears that cry for help. ²⁹But if God decides not to help them, then no person can judge God guilty. If God hides himself from people, then no person can find him. God is the ruler over people and nations. ³⁰And if a ruler causes people to sin, then God will remove him from power. ³¹That will happen unless he says to God, ‘I am guilty. I won’t sin any more. ³²God, even if I can’t see {you}, please teach me {the right way to live}. If I have done wrong, I won’t do it again.’ ³³“Job, you want God to reward you. But you refuse to change. Job, it is your decision, not mine. Tell me what you think. ³⁴A wise person would listen to me. A wise person would say, ³⁵‘Job talks like an ignorant person. The things Job says don’t make sense!’ ³⁶I think Job should be punished even more! Why? Because Job answers us the way an evil person would answer. ³⁷Job adds rebellion to his other sins. Job sits there in front of us and insults us and makes fun of God!”

35 Elihu continued talking. He said: ²“Job, it is not fair for you to say, ‘I am more right than God.’ ³And Job, you ask God, ‘What will a person gain if he tries to please God? What good will it do me if I don’t sin?’ ⁴“Job, I (Elihu) want to answer you and your friends here with you. ⁵Job, look up at the sky. Look up at the clouds that are higher than you. ⁶Job, if you sin, it does not hurt God. If you have many sins, that does nothing to God. ⁷And Job, if you are good, that does not help God. God gets nothing from you. ⁸Job, the good and bad things you do affect only other people like yourself. {They do not help or hurt God.} ⁹“If {bad} people are being hurt, then they will cry out for help. They go to powerful people and beg them to help them. ¹⁰But those bad people will not ask God for help. They will not say, ‘Where is the God who made me? God helps people when they are depressed. So where is he? ¹¹God makes us wiser than the birds and animals. {So where is he?}’ ¹²“Or, if those bad people ask God for help then God will not answer them. Why? Because those people are too proud. They still think they are too important. ¹³It is true, God won’t listen to their worthless begging. God All-Powerful won’t pay attention to them. ¹⁴So Job, God won’t listen to you when you say that you don’t see him. You say you are waiting for your chance to meet with God and prove that you are innocent. ¹⁵“Job thinks that God does not punish bad people, He thinks that God does not pay attention to sin. ¹⁶So Job continues his worthless talking. Job is acting like he is important. It is easy to see that Job does not know what he is talking about.”

36 Elihu continued talking. He said: ²“Be patient with me a little longer. God has a few more words {that he wants me to say}. ³I will share my knowledge with everyone. God made me and I will prove that God is fair. ⁴Job, I am telling the truth. I know what I am talking about. ⁵“God is very powerful, but he doesn’t hate people. God is very powerful, but he is also very wise. ⁶God won’t let evil people live. God always treats poor people fairly. ⁷God watches over people who live right. He lets good people be rulers. God gives good people honor forever. ⁸So if people are punished, if they are tied with chains and ropes then they did something wrong. ⁹And God will tell them what they did. God will tell him that they sinned. God will tell him that they were proud. ¹⁰God will force those people to listen to his warning. He will command them to stop sinning. ¹¹If those people listen to God, and obey him, then God will make them successful and they will live a happy life. ¹²But if those people refuse to obey God, then they will be destroyed. They will die like fools. ¹³“People that don’t care about God are always bitter. Even when God punishes them, they refuse to pray to God for help. ¹⁴Those people will die when they are still young, like the male prostitutes.* ¹⁵But God will humble people from their troubles. God uses those troubles to make people wake up and listen to him. ¹⁶“Job, God wants to help you. God wants to get you out of trouble. God wants to make life easy for you. God wants to put plenty of food on your table. ¹⁷But now, Job, you were judged guilty. So you were punished like an evil man. ¹⁸Job, don’t let riches fool you. Don’t let money change your mind. ¹⁹Your money can’t help you now. And powerful people can’t help you either! ²⁰Don’t wish for the night to come. People try to disappear into the night. {They think they can hide from God.}* ²¹Job, you have suffered a lot. But don’t choose evil. Be careful not to do wrong. ²²“Look, God’s power makes him great! God is the greatest teacher of all. ²³No person can tell God what to do. No person can say to God, ‘God, you have done wrong.’ ²⁴“Remember to praise God for the things he did. People have written many songs praising God. ²⁵Every person can see what God did. People in faraway countries can see those things. ²⁶Yes, God is great. But we can’t understand his greatness. We don’t know how long God has lived. ²⁷“God takes up water from the earth and changes it into mist and rain. ²⁸So the clouds pour out the water, and the rain falls on many people. ²⁹No person can understand how God spreads the clouds out or how the thunder rumbles in the sky. ³⁰Look, God spread the lightning over the earth and covered the deepest part of the ocean. ³¹God uses them to control the nations and to give them plenty of food. ³²God grabs the lightning with his hands, and commands it to hit where he wants. ³³The thunder warns that a storm is coming. So even the cattle know it is coming.

male prostitutes Men that sold their bodies for sexual sin, often with other men. This was often part of the Canaanite worship of the false gods. Verses 19–20 This is very hard to understand in Hebrew.