God’s Disciplinary Methods Illustrated in History

36 Then Elihu continued:

2 Wait, I pray, but a while; I will show thee:

I have yet to say somewhat for God.

3 With knowledge fetched from afar

I will justify my Creator.

4 For truly my words are no lie;

One in knowledge complete stands before thee.

5 Behold, God spurneth the stubborn,

6 The wicked He spareth not:

But He granteth the rights of the wretched,

7 Withdraws not their due from the just.

It has happened to kings on the throne,

seated in pride and glory,

8 That prisoners in chains they became,

Held fast in the cords of misery:

9 Then He set forth before them their doings,

Their proud and rebellious behaviour;

10 He opened their ears to instruction

And bade them turn back from sin.

11 If they hearken and do Him homage,

They finish their days in prosperity.

12 But if stubborn, they pass to Sheol,

They die without coming to knowledge.

13 For, godless at heart, they grow sullen;

They cry not for help when He binds them.

14 They die in the days of their youth,

Like sodomites they perish.

15 The sufferer He saveth through sufferings;

Adversity opens his ear.

16 But thou hast been lured by thy freedom,

By ease at the jaws of distress,

By the fat on thy well-filled table,

And the absence of trouble to haunt thee.

17 The full fate of the wicked is thine;

Thou art held in the grasp of His judgment.

18 Let not chastisement make thee resentful,

Nor let the high ransom deflect thee.

19 Wouldst thou marshall thy plaint against Him,

And all the resource of thy might?

20 Let not folly beguile thee to rival

The man who doth think himself wise.

21 Beware, and incline not to sin,

Nor make choice of sin rather than suffering.