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36:1  Elihu continued:
36:2  “Let me go on and I will show you the truth of what I am saying. For I have not finished defending God!
36:3  I will give you many illustrations of the righteousness of my Maker.
36:4  I am telling you the honest truth, for I am a man of well-rounded knowledge.
36:5  “God is almighty and yet does not despise anyone! And he is perfect in his understanding.
36:6  He does not reward the wicked with his blessings, but gives them their full share of punishment.
36:7  He does not ignore the good men but honors them by placing them upon eternal, kingly thrones.
36:8  If troubles come upon them and they are enslaved and afflicted,
36:9  then he takes the trouble to point out to them the reason, what they have done that is wrong, or how they have behaved proudly.
36:10  He helps them hear his instruction to turn away from their sin.
36:11  “If they listen and obey him, then they will be blessed with prosperity throughout their lives.
36:12  If they won’t listen to him, they shall perish in battle and die because of their lack of good sense.
36:13  But the godless reap his anger. They do not even return to him when he punishes them.
36:14  They die young after lives of dissipation and depravity.
36:15  He delivers by distress! This makes them listen to him!
36:16  “How he wanted to lure you away from danger into a wide and pleasant valley and to prosper you there.
36:17  But you are too preoccupied with your imagined grievances against others.
36:18  Watch out! Don’t let your anger at others lead you into scoffing at God! Don’t let your suffering embitter you at the only one who can deliver you.
36:19  Do you really think that if you shout loudly enough against God, he will be ashamed and repent? Will this put an end to your chastisement?
36:20  “Do not desire the nighttime, with its opportunities for crime.
36:21  Turn back from evil, for it was to prevent you from getting into a life of evil that God sent this suffering.
36:22  “Look, God is all-powerful. Who is a teacher like him?
36:23  Who can say that what he does is absurd or evil?
36:24  Instead, glorify him for his mighty works for which he is so famous.
36:25  Everyone has seen these things from a distance.
36:26  “God is so great that we cannot begin to know him. No one can begin to understand eternity.
36:27  He draws up the water vapor and then distills it into rain,
36:28  which the skies pour down.
36:29  Can anyone really understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunders within?
36:30  See how he spreads the lightning around him, and blankets the tops of the mountains.
36:31  By his fantastic powers in nature he punishes or blesses the people, giving them food in abundance.
36:32  He fills his hands with lightning bolts. He hurls each at its target.
36:33  We feel his presence in the thunder. Even the cattle know when a storm is coming.