¹And Elihu answered and said:

²Hear my words, you wise, and you who know, give ear to me.

³For the ear tests words, and the palate tastes in order to eat.

⁴Let us choose justice for ourselves; let us discern between us what is good.

⁵For Job has said, I am righteous, but God has taken away my justice.

⁶Shall I lie about my justice? My arrow is incurable, though without transgression.

⁷What man is like Job, who drinks mockery like water,

⁸who travels in association with those who do iniquity, and walks with men of wickedness?

⁹For he has said, A man does not profit when he is pleased with God.

¹⁰Therefore, you men of heart, listen to me: far be wickedness from God, and injustice from the Almighty.

¹¹For he repays a person's work to him, and according to each man's way he lets him find it.

¹²Yes, truly, God does not act wickedly, and the Almighty does not pervert justice.

¹³Who entrusted the land to him, and who set the world, all of it, on him?

¹⁴If he were to set his heart on himself and gather his breath and his vital breath to himself,

¹⁵all flesh would expire together, and humankind would return to dust.

¹⁶And if you have understanding, hear this; give ear to the sound of my words.

¹⁷Can one who hates justice really rule? Or will you condemn as guilty the righteous one, the mighty?

¹⁸Is one to say to a king, Worthless! and to nobles, Wicked?

¹⁹who does not lift up the faces of officials, nor acknowledge the wealthy ahead of the poor, for all of them are the work of his hands.

²⁰In an instant they die; in the middle of the night a people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are removed, not by a hand.

²¹For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps.

²²There is no darkness and no deep shadow where the doers of iniquity can hide themselves.

²³For he does not set it on anyone any longer to go to God for justice.

²⁴He breaks the mighty without inquiry, and sets others up in their place.

²⁵Therefore he recognizes their deeds; he overturns them by night, and they are crushed.

²⁶In the place of the wicked he slaps them, in a place of onlookers.

²⁷because they turned aside from following him, and did not consider any of his ways,

²⁸To bring the outcry of the poor up to him — and he hears the outcry of the afflicted.

²⁹When he keeps quiet, who can condemn? And when he hides his face, who can behold him? It holds over a nation and over a man alike.

³⁰So that a godless man may not reign, nor be traps for the people.

³¹For has anyone said to God, I have borne it; I will not act corruptly?

³²Apart from what I see, you teach me; if I have done injustice, I will not do it again.

³³Must he repay it on your terms, because you reject it? For you must choose, and not I; so speak what you know.

³⁴Men of heart will say to me, and a wise man who listens to me:

³⁵Job does not speak with knowledge, and his words do not come from acting wisely.

³⁶Would that Job were tested to the very end, on account of his answers among men of iniquity.

³⁷For he adds transgression to his sin; among us he claps, and multiplies his words against God.