Job 36

Elihu speaks again, claiming to defend God’s justice. He argues that God cares for the afflicted, that suffering is often His way of correcting people, and that Job should take care not to turn to sin in his pain. He then turns to God’s greatness, shown in the rain and the thunderstorm. Some of his reasoning is sound, but he leans too heavily on the idea that suffering always means correction.

Job 36:1-2

Elihu goes on after a pause. He asks Job for a little more patience and says he still has words to speak for God. His wish to defend God is good, though a person who speaks for God must take great care to speak truly.

BSA: Bear with me (“suffer me, be patient with me”): Elihu asks Job to put up with him a little longer, since his speech is long.

Job 36:3-4

Elihu says his knowledge comes from far off and that he will credit justice to his Maker. He claims his words are honest and that he is thoroughly informed. This is bold, and the reader may wonder whether he can really back it up.

BSA: justice (“righteousness, what is fair”): Elihu’s whole aim is to show that God does what is right.

Job 36:5

God is mighty, yet He does not look down on anyone. His power is joined with wisdom. Strength without understanding would be frightening, but God’s strength is steady and wise.

BSA: despises (“rejects, spurns”): God does not throw away or scorn any person, however low.

Job 36:6-7

God does not let the wicked go on forever, and He gives justice to the afflicted. His eyes stay on the righteous, and He may raise them to places of honor. Elihu paints a picture of God’s steady, watchful care.

BSA: afflicted (“crushed, oppressed, depressed”): These are people pressed down by trouble, whom God does not forget. enthrones (“establishes and exalts”): God can give the faithful a secure place of honor.

See also: Psalm 34:15; Psalm 113:7-8.

Job 36:8-10

People may be bound in the chains of suffering. Elihu says God uses such times to show them what they have done, including their pride, and to open their ears to correction. Suffering can be a teacher. This is sometimes true, but not always, as Job’s own case shows.

BSA: correction (“discipline, instruction”): God’s aim in hard times can be to teach, not merely to punish. opens (“uncovereth, reveals”): God uncovers ears that had been closed to His voice.

See also: Hebrews 12:5-6.

Job 36:11-12

Elihu sets out two paths. Those who listen and serve God finish their days in good things. Those who refuse perish without understanding. It is a clear rule of choice and result, but life does not always match it so neatly, as Job’s story shows.

BSA: obey (“listen and heed”): Obedience begins with really listening to God. knowledge (“understanding, spiritual insight”): Those who refuse God die lacking true spiritual insight, not only facts.

Job 36:13-14

The godless in heart nurse resentment, and even when God binds them, they do not call to Him. They die young, in shameful company. Elihu describes a hard heart that meets discipline with bitterness instead of prayer.

BSA: resentment (“anger, bitterness”): The godless store up anger toward God instead of turning to Him. male shrine prostitutes (“those who practice immorality in the name of religion”): This points to a life of corrupt, idolatrous worship ending in disgrace.

Job 36:15

God rescues the afflicted through their affliction. He speaks to them through their pain. Suffering that might crush a person can become the very place where God opens the ear and brings help.

BSA: rescues (“delivers, sets free”): God does not only watch the afflicted but frees them.

See also: Psalm 119:71.

Job 36:16

Elihu now speaks directly to Job. God would have drawn him out of a tight place into wide, open space and a rich table. In Hebrew, distress is a narrow place, and freedom is breadth. Elihu says God wanted this for Job.

BSA: spacious (“broad, wide”): Freedom is pictured as a wide-open place, the opposite of being cramped by trouble.

See also: Psalm 18:19.

Job 36:17

Elihu says Job is now full of the judgment that belongs to the wicked. This is a harsh charge, and it repeats the error of Job’s three friends. Job’s suffering was not, in fact, a verdict on hidden wickedness.

BSA: laden (“filled, preoccupied”): Elihu says Job is so full of his case against God that it fills his mind.

Job 36:18-19

Elihu warns Job not to be tempted by wealth or a large bribe. Riches and strong effort cannot keep a person from distress. The warning is wise in itself: money cannot rescue anyone in a real crisis.

BSA: bribe (“ransom, gift”): The word can mean a payment offered to buy one’s way out, which cannot work with God.

See also: Psalm 49:6-9.

Job 36:20-21

Elihu says not to long for the night, when people are cut off, and not to turn to iniquity. He fears Job, in his pain, may choose bitterness or sin over patient suffering. The warning is that wrong responses to hardship can make it worse.

BSA: preferred (“chosen, selected”): Turning to sin is presented as a choice made instead of enduring trouble.

Job 36:22-23

God is lifted high in power, and no teacher compares with Him. No one has appointed His path for Him or can tell Him He has done wrong. These are true, humbling words. God answers to no one.

BSA: teacher (“instructor, guide, one who shows”): God is the best of all teachers, even when He teaches through hardship.

See also: Romans 11:33-34; Isaiah 40:13-14.

Job 36:24-25

Elihu urges Job to remember to praise God’s work, as people have always done in song. All humanity has seen creation, though only from far off. We see the outer edges of God’s works, not the whole.

BSA: magnify (“to grow great, to increase in importance”): To magnify God is to make Him great in our thinking and our words.

See also: Psalm 19:1.

Job 36:26

God is so great that we cannot fully know Him, and His years cannot be counted. This is a turning point in Elihu’s speech. Before the One who has no beginning or end, human questions must bow.

BSA: unsearchable (“cannot be found out, incomprehensible”): No human effort can reach the end of God’s years or His being.

See also: Psalm 90:2.

Job 36:27-28

Elihu points to rain. God draws up drops of water from the earth, and they come down as rain from the clouds, poured out richly on people. The water cycle is an everyday wonder that shows God’s daily care.

BSA: abundantly (“plentifully, in great quantity”): God’s rain is not stingy, but poured out generously.

See also: Matthew 5:45.

Job 36:29

No one can fully understand how the clouds spread out or how thunder booms from God’s pavilion. The pavilion is a picture of a canopy or tent where God dwells, with the sky as His covering. Even familiar weather is beyond us.

BSA: pavilion (“His tabernacle, a temporary dwelling place”): The sky is pictured as the tent in which God is present.

Hebrew: סֻכָּתוֹ (sukkatō, H5521) — “his booth or shelter.” It is the word for a leafy booth or tent, so the storm clouds are pictured as the tent covering God’s presence.

See also: Psalm 18:11.

Job 36:30

God spreads lightning about Him and covers the depths of the sea. Light flashes from the sky, while the deep ocean lies hidden. The reach of His power runs from the heights above to the depths below.

BSA: lightning (“light, divine radiance”): The word is simply light, so the flash is seen as God’s own radiance.

Job 36:31

By the same weather God both judges nations and supplies food in plenty. Storms can bring harm, yet the rain they carry feeds the crops. God’s power may bring either correction or blessing, and He rules both.

BSA: judges (“governs, rules over”): The word also means to rule, so God is the One who governs the nations and not only punishes them.

Job 36:32

God fills His hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark. The picture is of a warrior holding a weapon and sending it where He wills. Nothing in the storm is random to Him.

BSA: commands (“gives charge, to appoint”): God gives the lightning an order, and it goes where He aims it.

Job 36:33

The thunder announces God’s presence, and even the cattle sense the storm coming. Elihu ends by pointing to the awe that creation itself feels. This prepares the way for the voice from the whirlwind in the chapters that follow.

BSA: declares (“tells, makes known”): The thunder acts like a herald announcing that God is near.

See also: Job 38:1.