Job 36
The full text of Job 36 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 And Elihu continued and said:
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 seats them with kings 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 richness.
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 forces 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 rain from his mist,
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 its mark.
33 Its crashing declares his presence;
the cattle also declare that he is coming.
Translation notes (12)
- Job 36:7a The Masoretic Text has et melakhim la-kisse (את מלכים לכסא). The particle et, 'with', may be taken as a preposition rather than a direct-object marker, yielding 'seats them with kings (on the throne)'; alternatively, 'he seats kings on the throne.' The Septuagint likewise understands 'with kings.'
- Job 36:12a The Masoretic Text reads baššāleḵ (בַּשָּׁלֶךְ), 'by the sword', while some Hebrew manuscripts and the Septuagint read baššālak (בַּשָּׁלַךְ), 'by the stream'.
- Job 36:14a Hebrew qedeshim (קְדֵשִׁים), literally 'consecrated ones', derives from the root meaning 'to be holy' and denotes male functionaries attached to pagan shrines (compare Deuteronomy 23:17; 1 Kings 14:24). The traditional identification of these figures as cult prostitutes is debated, since the texts specify their cultic status rather than their duties; the sense here is a shameful, early death.
- Job 36:16a The Hebrew of verses 16-20 is among the most obscure in Job, and the ancient versions diverge sharply here. This translation takes the verb hesitekha, 'he allured you', as describing God's rescue, reads mutsaq (מוּצָק) as 'cramping' or constraint, and renders deshen, literally 'fatness', as the richness of the food set on the table.
- Job 36:17a The Hebrew pronoun can be read as a singular 'you' referring to Job, or as a plural 'you' referring to the wicked.
- Job 36:18a The Hebrew of this verse is among the most obscure in Elihu's speeches. Kopher (כֹּפֶר), 'ransom', can also denote a bribe; some understand Elihu to warn that no payment, however great, can avert divine judgment, while others hear a caution against letting a bribe deflect Job from the right path. The translation retains 'ransom' while leaving the sense open, as the Hebrew itself does.
- Job 36:20a Hebrew tisha'ef, 'pant after', is rendered 'long for'. The clause 'when peoples vanish in their place' is difficult; tachtam, 'in their place', can also mean 'instead of them', suggesting a night of judgment when communities are removed and others take their place.
- Job 36:21a Hebrew bachar, 'choose', with min, 'from/than', can mark preference, so me'oni, 'affliction', is the rejected option ('rather than affliction'). The demonstrative zeh, 'this', most naturally resumes aven, 'iniquity', in the first line. A causal construal ('because of this affliction') strains the Masoretic Text's syntax.
- Job 36:27a The Hebrew 'ed, rendered here as 'mist', occurs elsewhere only in Genesis 2:6, and its meaning is debated; some connect it with Akkadian edu, 'flood', yielding subterranean waters rather than vapor. The verb zaqaq, 'to distill', is drawn from the refining of metals, picturing rain as filtered from the gathered waters above.
- Job 36:30a The Hebrew shorshei hayyam (שָׁרְשֵׁי הַיָּם), 'the roots of the sea', pictures the ocean as anchored by foundations reaching into the deep, an image common in ancient Near Eastern cosmology; compare the roots of the mountains in Job 28:9. Whether the lightning illumines these depths or the storm clouds veil them, the verse asserts God's reach over the remotest part of creation.
- Job 36:32a The Hebrew b'kappayim yekasse or—kappayim, 'palms' (כפיים); kasa, 'cover' (כסה); or, 'light' (אור, here 'lightning')—is literally "he covers light in the palms." Because b- can mean 'with' or 'in', the line may mean he encloses lightning in his hands rather than covers his hands with it.
- Job 36:33a The Hebrew of this line is difficult. The Masoretic Text reads miqneh, 'livestock' (מִקְנֶה), rendered here as 'cattle', picturing animals sensing the storm's approach. Many proposals repoint or emend the verse, but the Masoretic Text can be read as presenting parallel signs: the crash of thunder and the herd announcing his coming.
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