JOB CHAPTER 33 - 38

JOB 33

1 So, Job, please listen to my speeches,
And hearken to my words like peaches.
2 Behold, now I’ve opened my mouth,
My tongue has spoken in my mouth.
3 My words shall be of my heart’s right,
My lips bring knowledge into sight.
4 The Spirit of El has made me,
And the breath of the Almighty
Has given me my life freely.
5 If you can answer me, then do,
Stand up before me in my view.
6 See, I stand at your order here
As though I were El to appear
As you wished, though I’m formed of clay.
7 Behold, my terror shall not sway
To make you fear, nor shall my hand
Be heavy on you where you stand.

If Job is here to justify the deeds
That You Yourself said measured up to reeds,
The world about him, for their frozen creeds
And hearts, disdain him for the truth he feeds.
But one of them without a qualm or blush,
Without a hesitation in the rush,
Is bold to say that he comes in the tent
Of pain and suffering here to represent
You on Your throne, though made of clay and breath
That hangs upon a thread over his death.
The human mind is great above all things:
None but the human can presume as kings,
None but the human quibbles at the mote,
And grasps the collar and squeezes the throat.

8 I’ve certainly heard what you said,
And understood intention spread.
9 “I’m clean without transgression, I
Am innocent, no sin in sty.
10 “See, He finds something against me
And counts me as an enemy.
11 “He puts my feet in stocks and stays,
He follows and marks all my ways.”
12 See now, in this you are not just,
I’ll answer you as well I must,
Allah’s greater than man of dust.
13 Why do you so strive against Him?
He gives no account of the dim.

Elihu focuses in his impatience
Upon the same feature in Job’s ematience.
It’s true enough that man is here to show
His patience before pain and death come slow,
And in that quiet lack of questioning
Earn the reward of Paradise in spring.
But that is simply not the question here.
We’re faced with two concepts of You, one drear,
That pain is evidence of divine sword
Dividing human flesh with sin’s reward,
And one that states You come on Judgement Day
To give reward, to every man his pay.
Elihu has not picked up on the question,
And so’s irrelevant in his suggestion.

14 For God speaks once or maybe twice,
Man’s perceiving does not suffice.
15 In a dream, vision of the night,
When deep sleep falls on man and wight,
Asleep safe in bed without fright.
16 Then He opens the ears of men,
And seals their instruction again,
17 So He may draw man from his goal,
And hide man’s pride against the toll.
18 He keeps back his soul from the pit,
And his life from the sword in fit.
19 He’s chastened with pain on his bed,
And all his bones suffer instead,
20 So that his life abhors his bread,
And his soul his dainty meat fed.
21 His flesh is consumed away, so
It cannot be seen; and the show
Of his bones stick out in a row.
22 Indeed his soul comes near the grave,
His life to the destroyers brave.

The answers of the trinity of bold
Comforters was based on the clear and cold
Logic that pain is always a reward
For sin, therefore wherever pain is stored
There must be also sin. The logic’s weak
And faulty, but it’s logic there to seek.
Elihu claims that logic’s not enough
To answer the deep questions in the rough,
But for that man’s dependent on the gruff,
The vision in the night revealing tough.
Beloved, I question here the reason and
The vision of both glory and the stand
Of trouble on the shore, the golden sand.
A doubting Thomas, I am always banned.

23 If there’s a messenger with him,
Interpreter, one who’s not dim
Among a thousand, to shew man
His uprightness and make him scan,
24 Then he is gracious to him, and
Says, “Save him from the horrid pit,
I’ve found a ransom, and one fit.”
25 His flesh is fresher than a child,
He’ll return to his youth unguiled.
26 He’ll pray to Allah who gives grace,
And with joy come before His face,
For He’ll reward man’s righteous case.
27 He looks on men, if any say,
“I have sinned, and gone the wrong way,
And found to profit where I stray,”
28 He will deliver his soul from
Going into the pit to come,
And his life shall behold the light
Of great salvation come in sight.

Elihu is the first great Christian man,
The first to state two heresies in span.
The first is that grace comes as soon as due
When a man gives confession in his pew
Acknowledging his sinfulness in view,
Instead of in particular to set
Transgression right and do commandments met.
The second is that such a man will miss
The grave and its pains for the divine kiss.
The false gospel is shown here in its bliss
Of lawlessness and the great lie that man
May avoid death to live as a man can.
Eternal life with sins paid by another
Is the good news that trips up every brother.

29 See all these things El does for man,
30 To bring back his soul from the span
Of the grave to the living light.
31 Mark well, O Job, listen to right,
Be still and I will dispel night.
32 If you have anything to say,
Answer me: speak and speak away,
For I desire to justify
You if you only will comply.
33 If not, listen to me and be
Quiet and I will teach freely
The wisdom that you do not see.

Elihu brings salvation like the church,
He does not leave Job sitting in the lurch.
The message is that grace brings life to last
And conquers the grave and its pains gone past.
Job only needs to lie and say he’s sinned,
And all will be well among fowl and finned.
But he must first relinquish truth and reason
Before the great Magisterium’s season.
The pope goes back well beyond Peter’s day,
Alive and well in what Job’s friends would say.
Before the teaching of the revelation
Against all reason and against all ration
Of fact, the poor Christian must bow his head
And thank the church on perch for heavenly bread.

JOB 34

1 Elihu continued his speech,
2 Listen, wise men, to what I preach,
And you with knowledge, give me ear.
3 For the ear tries words, as the tongue
Tastes food and with its savour hung.
4 Let us choose to us judgment: let
Us know for ourselves the good met.
5 For Job has said, “I’m in the right,
El’s taken justice from my sight.
Should I lie against my own hand?
My wound’s without a cure to stand
Without having done wickedness.”
7 What man is like Job, who drinks up
Scorn like water poured in a cup?
8 He goes out with the band of sinners,
And makes the wicked men his winners.
9 For he has said, “It profits man
Nothing to delight in the plan
Of Ælohim set out to scan.”

The sweet Christian cannot have it both ways.
Elihu has the same belief for praise
That pain is punishment for wickedness,
And consequently a man’s bright success
Is proof that he’s a winner in the dress,
A righteous man who does good everywhere,
And has no hidden sins among the fair.
If that is so, he preaches righteousness
By works of the law, a grave offence mess
To every Protestant who answers call.
His gospel’s mixed with manure from the stall.
Beloved, the mixing up of concepts here
Is not a new thing, and also I fear
Does not end with Elihu’s tongue and ear.

10 So listen to me, you who know,
El is not one for wicked show,
Nor does Shaddai an evil row.
11 He’ll pay a man by what he’s done,
According as he’s lost or won.
12 Surely El will not do a thing
That’s evil, neither shall a sting
Against justice make Shaddai’s wing.
13 Who’s given Him charge over earth
Disposed of the whole world in worth?
14 If he sets his heart upon man
To gather his spirit in span
And his breath to Himself by plan,
15 All flesh shall perish in the crust,
And man shall turn again to dust.

Elihu now takes up another story
To add to the two already in glory
And inconsistency in what he says.
He now takes up the atheistic fez.
He’s sure that God who does an evil thing
Must not exist at all under the wing
Of universe, and since we see around
Us evil, it must be just to abound,
And is not evil. Job if pained at all
Must be pained justly pushed against the wall.
He has not gone to that logic I find
So common here, that evil in the bind
Is evidence that no God’s here to take
The throne at all beside the evil stake.

16 If now you understand, hear this:
Listen to my voice and my hiss.
17 Can any One who hates the right
Come to rule over all for spite?
Will you condemn the One who’s just
Above all beings made of dust?
18 Do you say to the king he’s wrong,
And to princes they’ve hit the gong?
19 How much less to him that accepts
Not face of princes nor adepts,
Nor regards the rich more than poor?
For they’re all works of His hand sure.
20 In one moment shall they all die,
And people be troubled to fly
At midnight, and pass away: and
The mighty be taken from hand.
21 For His eyes are on ways of man,
And He sees all his goings’ span.

Prolific is Elihu, I must say!
He finds another inconsistent ray.
He first says that he does not care a whit
For title or position in outfit,
And then he goes on to make point that might
Makes right and every king sets up his knight.
If might makes right, then that above all things
Is bowing before face and fame and stings.
Beloved, this passage of Your Scripture holds
The best lesson to humankind that scolds
The tendency to inconsistency
So prevalent in every speech I see.
I pride You on the inspiration here
That comes out shouting loud and spare and clear.

22 There’s no darkness, shadow of death,
Where hidden sinners hold their breath.
23 For He’ll not lay on man a load
More than in justice is El’s goad.
24 He’ll break in pieces mighty men
Without number, and set again
Others in their place. 25 So He knows
Their works, and overturns their pose
In a night, and they are destroyed.
26 He strikes them down as those employed
In wickedness in public sight.
27 Because they turned back from His right,
And would not keep His ways in light.
28 So they cause the cry of the poor
To come to Him, and he hears sure
The cry of the afflicted poor.

After all his bright inconsistency,
Elihu comes back to the trinity
Of comforters and takes up once again
The selfsame argument of those false men.
Since God is just and all things come from Him,
The pain of Job reveals the evil dim
That he had done in secret to the poor.
It is an evidence to make things sure.
Beloved, I see that every generation
Comes with the same old lies’ perpetuation,
But only multiplies disdain for each
That came before him in the stand to preach.
The edifice is strong and without breach,
And yet divides with each man keen to teach.

29 When He gives quietness and peace,
Who then can make trouble’s release?
And when He goes to hide His face,
Who then can see Him in His place?
Against a man, against a race,
30 So that a hypocrite reigns not,
So that the people be not caught.
31 But surely it is meet to say
To El, I’ve borne my punished pay,
I will offend no more today.
32 If I am wrong, then correct me;
If I have done iniquity,
I will do no such more in spe.
33 Should He act by your mind and will,
As you say the yes and the nil?
I can’t speak for you, choose your swill.
34 Let men of understanding tell,
And let a wise man hear me well.
35 Job spoke without knowledge in spell
And without wisdom he was swell.
36 I wish Job more pain till the end
Because he answers like a fiend.
37 He adds rebellion to his sin,
He claps among us as to win,
And adds against El words in bin.

Here the sweet Christian’s attitude awakes
The pinnacle of Christian love for sakes
Of sinners. How Elihu heaps the stakes
Of status quo. See how oppressed heart shakes!
The innocently evil heart and mind
Of the majority is of a kind:
What is must be the will of God and blind,
God would not allow bad kings unconsigned.
If a king reigns, he has to do the right,
Since right is defined by the kingly might.
From this appears the sweet Christian in love,
He hopes that Job will burn in hell to shove
The idea that a man may do the good
And still fall beneath shower in the wood.

JOB 35

1 Elihu spoke again and said
2 Do you think you come out ahead
To say that you are right instead
Of El? To me you sound ill-bred.
3 Because you said “What profit’s here
If I am cleansed from sin in fear?
4 I’ll answer you, and your friends too.
5 Look at the sky and see how high
Above the clouds are floating by.
6 If you sin what happens to Him,
Many transgressions make no dim.
7 If you do right, what do you give
To Him in help to make Him live?
8 Your wickedness hurts only man
As you, and your goodness in plan
Can only help the son of man.

The argument that human action wakes
No answering response in Your own breaks
Is quite irrelevant to questions posed.
But it’s a part of the concept that dozed
Beneath the sleeping mind of Elihu
And his three friends in what they say and do.
The point is proved that You care not a whit
For what folk do on earth here where they sit,
And actions good and bad have no effect
Because You’re spirit only and select.
The spiritualization of Your throne
Opens the door to thinking matter’s stone
Is in itself impure, unholy and
Justly endures pain’s punishment to stand.

9 Because of the oppressing weight
Of wrong the oppressed cry in state,
Because of the hand of the great.
10 But none says “Where's Allah my maker,
Who gives songs in the night to shake her.”
11 Who teaches us more than the beast
Of the earth, and makes us increased
In wisdom above birds that fly?
12 There they cry, but none gives reply,
Because of proud men on the sly.
13 Surely El will not hear the vain,
Shaddai will not regard the main.
14 Though you say you cannot see Him,
Yet judgement is come before Him,
So just be still and trust in Him.
15 Now since He does not pour down wrath
In its extremity on path,
16 Therefore Job’s speech is all in vain,
And he says words that are insane.

Elihu’s argument is that since those
Who lie beneath oppression of their foes
Do not blame You for all their pain in rows,
But submit to injustice thinking that
If You permit it, they’ll accept the bat,
Then Job is wrong to choose another way.
The argument of popular in sway
Is strong for the majority whose minds
Are closed by their stupidity and blinds.
It’s true that patience has its own reward,
But that is no excuse to show the sword
When one cries out in anguish in the night.
Elihu’s name is too good in Your sight,
A hypocrite like others who are right.

JOB 36

1 Elihu kept on talking then.
2 Be patient and I’ll show again
I speak for Allah and not men.
3 I’ll fetch my knowledge from afar,
And count my Maker a right star.
4 For truly my words are not false,
I’m perfect here to dance the waltz.
5 See, El is great, despises not,
Mighty in strength and wisdom’s lot.
6 He does not save a wicked life,
But gives right to the poor in strife.
7 He keeps His eyes on righteous men,
And kings on the throne, see, He sets
Them up forever, no regrets.
9 And if they’re bound in fetters’ chains,
And held in afflictions’ remains,
9 Then he shows them their work for pains,
And their transgressions for their gains.
10 He also opens up their ear
To discipline, and commands fear
That they back from iniquity.
11 If they obey in service free,
They’ll spend lives in prosperity,
And years in pleasures faithfully.
12 But if they don’t obey, they shall
Perish by the sword, and pell-mell
Die without knowledge in a spell.
13 The hypocrites heap up their wrath,
But cry out not upon the path
Of their captivity for pain.
14 They die young among unclean vein.

Elihu continues to speak aloud
On Your behalf, Beloved, to all the crowd,
And as the vicar of the son of God,
He lays out teaching fast upon the sod.
He speaks of hypocrites, and by that sound
I know that there are still upon the ground
A faithful few who do not dance to tunes
Baked in the Vatican or in lampoons
Of rock and roll to jazz the place a while.
Yes, My Beloved, the queue’s of many mile
Of those ready to speak for You and smile.
Beloved, Beloved, keep me off from such guile.
I speak for that self that’s illusion’s pile
And leave the rest to utter hale and heil.

15 He saves the poor when he’s oppressed,
And opens their ears when addressed.
16 And yet He would have taken you
Our of your trouble to a pew
Where there is no trouble in view,
Before a table set with stew.
17 But you received the wicked’s plot,
Judgement and justice fall your lot.
18 Because there’s wrath, beware lest He
Take you with one’s stroke’s equity,
Then no great ransom will set free.
19 Will He be moved by your wealth’s fee?
No, not by gold or hand mighty.
20 Desire not the night, when the folk
Are cut off in place by a stroke.
21 Take heed, don’t hide iniquity,
That’s why you have affliction’s fee.
22 See, El’s exalted in His power,
Who can teach Him even an hour?
23 Who’s determined for Him His way?
Who can tell Him He’s in the sway
Of evil? 24 Mind you magnify
His work in all that man may spy.
25 Every man may see it; man may
Behold it far off on the way.
26 See, El is great, we know Him not,
Nor can His years number be sought.
27 He makes small drops of water form,
They pour down as rain cold and warm,
28 Which the clouds drop distilling on
Humankind in abundance drawn.
29 Can any understand the clouds
Spreading out tents with noise of crowds?
30 He spreads His lightning on it too
As far as the sea bottom’s view.
31 For by them He judges the folk,
He gives them nourishment for yoke.
32 With clouds He covers up the light,
And then commands to come the night.
33 He shows His coming by the sound
The very cattle know the round.

You are, Beloved, great and that’s argument
For everything that comes allowed and sent
Into the human heart and brain and tent.
You are great and that answers every vent.
By saying You are great I mend the view
That would be torn by what I say and do.
By saying You are great I crush the sound
Of the oppressed complaining on the ground.
By saying You are great I raise a wind
To hide the reproach of the world that sinned.
So much can be accomplished, both the fair
And evil by proclaiming to the air
The truth in tones so loud that none can share
Insight inspired by You, Beloved, to bare.

JOB 37

1 At this also my heart is moved
And trembles from the place it’s grooved.
2 With care hear the sound of His voice
Gone out from His lips to rejoice.
3 He guides it under the whole sky,
His lightning round the world and by.
4 After the lightning comes the thunder,
Roaring with a sound made to wonder,
He does not stop them in the blunder.
5 El thunders greatly with His voice,
He does great things by His own choice.
6 He says to the snow, “Fall on earth.”
He orders the sleet too as well
As the downpour into a swell.
7 He seals the hand of every man;
That all may know His work and plan.
8 Then the beasts go into their dens,
And stay hidden from woods and fens.
9 Out of the south comes the whirlwind:
And cold out of the north where binned.
10 By breath of El the frost is given;
The wide streams straitened where they’ve striven.
11 He empties the thick cloud of rain,
Dispersing it brightly again.
12 And it is turned around about
By His counsels, that they in rout
May do whatever He commands
About the world and on its lands.
13 He causes it to come, maybe
For punishment, or for the fee
Of His land or even mercy.

The artistry by which the false faith rises
Upon the air truly, indeed surprises.
The pinnacle of poetry that’s found
In book of Job is tattered and unwound
By the young tongue of Elihu to show
How beautiful poetry on the go
Can be, and yet corrupt the truth to glow
With full oppression on the seat and row.
Beloved, I hear the sweetness of the loom,
I hear the rhyme unreasoned with perfume,
And feel the ecstasy rise up and bloom.
I touch wood and knock for the feather where
The down-to-earth may strike the preaching bare
That sings like Mozart, but with evil share.

14 Listen to this, Job, and stand still,
Consider El’s great words and will.
15 Do you know how Allah brings them
And causes light from the cloud’s hem?
16 Do you know the weight of the clouds,
His miracles perfect in crowds?
17 How your clothes warm when from the south
The earth is quieted in mouth?
18 Did you spread out the sky with Him,
Strong like a molten glass not dim?
19 Teach us what we shall say to Him,
For we cannot in darkness grim.
20 Shall it be told Him that I speak?
If a man speaks, he’ll fail as weak.
21 And now men see not the bright light
Which is in the clouds day and night:
But the wind passes, making right.
22 Fair weather comes from the north side,
Allah is glorious to abide.
23 Shaddai, we cannot find Him out,
He’s excellent in strength and stout
In judgement and justice about,
He will not afflict in the rout.
24 That’s why men fear Him, He will not
Regard the wise of heart and plot.

Both Job and good Elihu say the same:
You do not come to afflict those in blame.
Job means that all eat of the bitter fruit
That’s this world in portion to the root,
But pain of punishment shall come to boot
Only on day of judgement for the loot.
Elihu means that the pain here and now
Is not unjust affliction on the brow,
But well deserved in punishment to yield
Repentance from the heart that should be healed.
With one and the same word two men can make
The truth shine brightly or a vain mistake.
Beloved, the language of man’s tongue is frail
To say the truth in clarity’s new mail.

JOB 38

1 YHWH answered Job from the whirlwind,
And said 2 Who’s this that’s come unbinned
By speeches without knowledge tinned?
3 Hoist up your pants now like a man,
I’ll question, reply as you can.
4 Where were you when the footer for
The earth I poured? Declare the score.
5 And who has measured it, do you
Know who stretched its line out in view?
6 On what are the foundations stayed,
The corner stone set and arrayed?
7 When morning stars sang in parade,
And children of Ælohim made
Songs of rejoicing in charade?
8 Or who shut up the sea with doors,
When it broke out as the womb pours?
9 When I made clothing of the cloud
And thick darkness for it a shroud,
10 And ploughed it a place by My plan,
And set its bars and doors in span,
11 And said to here you now may come,
But no further may proud waves hum?

You are a sneaking villain, my Beloved,
To come with such words that seem in the gloved
To gain the confidence of trinity
Of comforters met in quadrinity.
You speak to one possessed of pain and strife
To show him that he’s weak in death and life
As though he had not said as much himself
Before he was dragged down and off the shelf.
Beloved, I’ve heard such rhetoric before,
And in fact think it not too bad a score.
Let light burn in the opposite to make
The foolish rise in pride to set their stake
Before they feel the lash in their surprise
Open before them justice from the skies.

12 Have you commanded morning’s rays
Since the beginning of your days;
And caused the dayspring to know praise,
13 To take hold of the ends of earth,
To shake the wicked from their berth?
14 It’s turned as the clay to the seal,
They stand as a garment to weal.
15 And from the wicked their light’s held,
And the high arm broken and felled.
16 Have you entered in the sea springs?
Have you walked searching the deep things?
17 Have death’s gates been opened to you?
Or have you seen their doors in view?
18 Have you perceived the breadth of earth?
Declare if you know of its worth.
19 Where is the way where light is found?
And where is darkness on the ground?
20 That you should hide them in a box,
That you should pasture them like flocks.
21 Do you know it because by then
You were already born with men?
Or because you are old in den?

Beloved, your argument holds not a whit
Of weight, I am surprised You offer it.
The fact that Job was not born when You made
The earth has naught to do with the parade
Of his sins or his righteous acts unstayed.
The question is, did the man sin or not
That You came in to punish in his plot.
Job says he did not, his friends say he did.
You ought to have the sense to answer bid
Instead of bragging on Yourself that way.
The man has suffered plenty at the hand
Of his own trinity, why take a stand
Against him, when You know the man is right?
Move on to the confession. Leave the night.

22 Have you entered the treasure trove
Of the snow or where the hail hove,
23 Which I’ve saved up for troubled times,
For days of battle and of crimes?
24 From where does the light go forth that
That scatters the east wind on earth’s flat?
25 Who has divided watercourse
For overflowing waters’ horse,
Or a way for the thunder’s light,
26 To bring rain on the earth with might,
Where no one is, in wilderness,
Where no man comes to make address,
27 To satisfy the desolate
And waste ground, and to spring the bait
Of budding tender herb not late?
28 Is there a father for the rain,
Or who begets the dew again?

There are a few around today who know
A good bit about the ground where they grow,
And how the hail is formed and how the snow,
And where the rain comes from, the thunder too,
And who and how engenders morning dew.
But with that knowledge they’re no wiser than
The comforters of Job in their wild plan
That every pain on earth is punishment
From You and proves the sinner has been bent.
If knowledge of the fact of universe
Gives naught in aid to prove You none the worse,
Then why bring up such things to knock Job down,
As though he were a fool upon the town?
Beloved, You’re smart, but still You earn a frown.

29 Out of whose womb has come the ice?
The hoary frost of heaven’s device,
Who hath gendered it to suffice?
30 The waters covered as with stone,
The surface of the deep alone
Frozen fast and under whose throne?
31 Can you bind up the Pleiades
In their sweet fragrance like a breeze,
Or loosen Orion with ease?
32 Can you bring round the zodiac
In its time and deliver back
Arcturus with his sons in slack?
33 Do you know the order of heaven?
Can you set rule on earthly leaven?
34 Can you lift up your voice to clouds,
To bring the water down in shrouds?
35 Can you send lightnings, make them go,
And say to you, “We’re in a row?”
36 Who’s put an order in their heart
To understand and do their part?

The zodiac’s a question now and then,
And still an object to interest most men,
Or at least teen-aged daughters on the wen.
If You’re the one who moves the zodiac,
Does that mean that the load is on Your back
Of the responsibility of all
The zodiac’s supposed to do in thrall?
I hardly pay attention to the stars
That so determine night and day and bars.
I’ll let You turn Your playthings round and round
And not worry at all what hits the ground.
Beloved, I trust Your grace more than the band
Of constellations that come in to stand,
And Your own mercy more than fellow-manned.

37 Who can give precise count to clouds,
Or bottle up the heavenly crowds,
38 When the dust hardens on the ground,
And the clods cleave where they are bound?
39 Will you in prowess give a hand
To hunting lion, fill the band
Of lion cubs with meat for sand?
40 When they couch in their dens, and stay
In secret places where they lay?
41 Who gives the raven his food’s share,
When his young ones cry in the air
To El when their cupboard is bare?

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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http://www.lulu.com/shop/thomas-mcelwain/the-beloved-and-i-job-to-revelation/paperback/product-20050862.html