Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo

Job 36

Elihu presents affliction as a means of instruction, then directs Job’s attention to God’s unmatched power and wisdom.

Elihu continues speaking to Job, asking for more time to defend God’s righteousness. He describes God as mighty and attentive to the afflicted, then argues that suffering can expose wrongdoing and open a person’s ears to instruction. Turning to Job, Elihu warns against anger and accuses him of choosing iniquity over affliction. His speech then turns toward God’s greatness as teacher and ruler of creation, tracing divine power through rain and the approaching storm.

illness or diagnosisdoubtsermon or Bible study notes
Read
2“Bear with me a little, and I will show you; for I still have something to say on God’s behalf.
3I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
4For truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
5“Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding.
6He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked, but gives justice to the afflicted.
7He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
8If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions,
9then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.
10He also opens their ears to instruction, and commands that they return from iniquity.
11If they listen and serve him, they will spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.
12But if they don’t listen, they will perish by the sword; they will die without knowledge.
13“But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them.
14They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean.
15He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in oppression.
16Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a wide place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.
17“But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you.
18Don’t let riches entice you to wrath, neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.
19Would your wealth sustain you in distress, or all the might of your strength?
20Don’t desire the night, when people are cut off in their place.
21Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction.
22Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?
23Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness’?
24“Remember that you magnify his work, about which men have sung.
26Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.
27For he draws up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor,
28which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly.
29Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunderings of his pavilion?
30Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea.
32He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it to strike the mark.
33Its noise tells about him, and the livestock also, concerning the storm that comes up.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Job 36:22Calling God an unmatched teacher joins Elihu’s account of instruction through suffering to his praise of divine power.
Job 36:16The image of a wide place expresses the relief Elihu says God would have brought Job out to receive.
Job 36:7Elihu’s claim that God watches the righteous grounds his argument that affliction need not mean abandonment.
Where this chapter reaches

Psalm shares this chapter’s themes of God watching the righteous, giving justice to the afflicted, and ruling the weather that sustains life. Isaiah shares its portrayal of God’s unsearchable greatness and wisdom, alongside the rain through which he provides food.

Job 36's chapter linksAll strongest linksHover or tap a book
Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What tension do you notice between Elihu’s confidence in his knowledge and his description of God’s greatness?

Write on this

How does the closing storm imagery shape your reading of Elihu’s claims about suffering?

Write on this

Questions people ask about Job 36

Does Job 36:11 promise prosperity to everyone who obeys God?

Verse 11 belongs to Elihu’s argument that those who heed God’s instruction will prosper, while those who refuse will perish. He applies that pattern to Job’s suffering. The chapter records Elihu’s claim within a speech; it does not establish a blanket guarantee of wealth for every obedient person.

What does Job 36:15 mean by deliverance through affliction?

Elihu says God can use affliction itself to bring deliverance by opening a sufferer’s ears to instruction. This follows his description of God exposing wrongdoing and calling people to turn from it. Elihu treats suffering as a means of correction, though his accusation against Job remains the speaker’s judgment.

Read it. Now write it.

Start an entry on Job 36. Your words go beside the text, and you get one next step for the week.

Job · 42 chapters
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142
What the Bible says about doubt →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).