Elihu proclaims God's goodness
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Elihu continued on and said,
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“Permit me to speak a little longer, and I will show you some things because I have a little more to say in defense of God.
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I will obtain my knowledge from far off; I will acknowledge that righteousness belongs to my Maker.
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For indeed, my words will not be false; someone who is mature in knowledge is with you.
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See, God is mighty, and despises no one; he is mighty in strength of understanding.
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He does not preserve the life of wicked people but instead does what is right for those who suffer.
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He does not withdraw his eyes from righteous people but instead sets them on thrones like kings forever, and they are lifted up.
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If they are bound in chains and trapped in cords of suffering,
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then he reveals to them what they have done, and their transgressions and their pride.
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He also opens their ears to his instruction, and commands them to turn back from iniquity.
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If they listen to him and worship him, they will spend their days in prosperity, their years in contentment.
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However, if they do not listen, they will perish by the sword; they will die because they have no knowledge.
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Those who are godless in heart store up their anger; they do not cry out for help even when God ties them up.
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They die in their youth; their lives end among the cultic prostitutes.
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God rescues afflicted people by means of their afflictions; he opens their ears by means of their oppression.
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Indeed, he would like to draw you out of distress into a broad place where there is no hardship and where your table would be set with food full of fatness.
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But you are full of judgment on wicked people; judgment and justice have laid hold of you.
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Do not let your anger entice you to mockery, or the greatness of a ransom to turn you aside.
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Can your wealth benefit you, so that you will not be in distress, or can all the force of your strength help you?
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Do not desire the night, to commit sin against others, when peoples are cut off in their place.
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Be careful that you do not turn to sin because you are being tested by suffering so that you will stay away from sinning.
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See, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him?
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Who has ever instructed him about his way? Who can ever say to him, ‘You have committed unrighteousness?’
Elihu proclaims God's majesty
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Remember to praise his deeds, of which people have sung.
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All people have looked on those deeds, but they see those deeds only from far away.
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See, God is great, but we do not understand him well; the number of his years is incalculable.
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For he draws up the drops of water that he distills as rain from his vapor,
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which the clouds pour down and drop in abundance on mankind.
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Indeed, can anyone understand the extensive spread of the clouds and the thunder from his hut?
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See, he spreads his lightning around him and covers the roots of the sea.
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In this way he judges the peoples and gives food in abundance.
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He fills his hands with the lightning until he commands it to strike its mark.
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Its thunder warns of the storm, the cattle can also hear it is coming.
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