Job 34 — Far Be It from God to Do Wrong

Today’s Passage: Job 34

Elihu turns from Job’s pain to the things Job has said about God, and he calls wise men to weigh the speech alongside him. He fixes on the most dangerous line of all, that God has deprived Job of justice and that it profits a man nothing to delight in God, and against it he sets a sentence the book will never surrender: “Far be it from God to do wrong, and from the Almighty to act unjustly.” About God he is right, and gloriously so. He is only too quick to turn the sentence into a verdict on the man in front of him.

As you read, hold this: Far be it from God to do wrong.

Job 34:1–9 (BSB)

¹ Then Elihu continued: ² “Hear my words, O wise men; give ear to me, O men of learning. ³ For the ear tests words as the mouth tastes food. ⁴ Let us choose for ourselves what is right; let us learn together what is good. ⁵ For Job has declared, ‘I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice. ⁶ Would I lie about my case? My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’ ⁷ What man is like Job, who drinks up derision like water? ⁸ He keeps company with evildoers and walks with wicked men. ⁹ For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.’

He invites careful judgment, and then he lays out the problem as he sees it: Job has insisted on his own righteousness while charging God with denying him justice. The quotations are accurate enough, but then Elihu overreaches, for to say that Job “keeps company with evildoers” is to read a grieving man’s raw words as though they were settled wickedness. His sharpest concern comes in verse 9, that delighting in God yields no profit, and there he has put his finger on the real danger. Job has flirted with the logic of despair, and Elihu will not let it stand.

Job 34:10–15 (BSB)

¹⁰ Therefore listen to me, O men of understanding. Far be it from God to do wrong, and from the Almighty to act unjustly. ¹¹ For according to a man’s deeds He repays him; according to a man’s ways He brings consequences. ¹² Indeed, it is true that God does not act wickedly, and the Almighty does not pervert justice. ¹³ Who gave Him charge over the earth? Who appointed Him over the whole world? ¹⁴ If He were to set His heart to it and withdraw His Spirit and breath, ¹⁵ all flesh would perish together and mankind would return to the dust.

Here is his finest theology, and here is the day’s hold. It is unthinkable that God should do wrong (עָוֶל) ʿavel, pronounced AH-vel. Strong's H5766, injustice, wrongdoing, crookedness. The phrase carries a kind of holy horror: that there should be any ʿavel in Him at all is simply unthinkable. This is bedrock. Whatever is uncertain in the dark, this is not, for there is no unfairness hidden anywhere in His dealings. We may not understand His ways, but we never have grounds to accuse Him of ʿavel. Elihu’s anchor is true, and the whirlwind will not move it. What the whirlwind will not do is let Elihu use that anchor as a verdict on Job. . He repays according to deeds, which is true as a general rule of His moral government, though Elihu presses it too rigidly onto this one case. No one appointed Him, so His rule is underived, and every creature lives only because He sustains its breath. Were He to withdraw that breath, all flesh would return to the dust. The God who could end everything simply by ceasing to uphold it is not maneuvering for any advantage, and His justice is as sure as His sovereignty. What Elihu cannot see is how any of it applies to the man on the ash heap.

Job 34:16–30 (BSB)

¹⁶ If you have understanding, hear this; listen to my words. ¹⁷ Could one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn the just and mighty One, ¹⁸ who says to kings, ‘You are worthless!’ and to nobles, ‘You are wicked,’ ¹⁹ who is not partial to princes and does not favor rich over poor? For they are all the work of His hands. ²⁰ They die in an instant, in the middle of the night. The people convulse and pass away; the mighty are removed without human hand. ²¹ For His eyes are on the ways of a man, and He sees his every step. ²² There is no darkness or deep shadow where the workers of iniquity can hide. ²³ For God need not examine a man further or have him approach for judgment. ²⁴ He shatters the mighty without inquiry and sets up others in their place. ²⁵ Therefore, He recognizes their deeds; He overthrows them in the night and they are crushed. ²⁶ He strikes them for their wickedness in full view, ²⁷ because they turned aside from Him and had no regard for any of His ways. ²⁸ They caused the cry of the poor to come before Him, and He heard the outcry of the afflicted. ²⁹ But when He remains silent, who can condemn Him? When He hides His face, who can see Him? Yet He watches over both man and nation, ³⁰ that godless men should not rule or lay snares for the people.

“Could one who hates justice govern?” Elihu loves the logic of it, and the logic is sound: an unjust being could not sustain a just world. God’s justice is perfectly impartial. He calls kings worthless and nobles wicked, for prince and pauper alike are the work of His hands, and the mighty can be removed without so much as a human hand lifted against them.

Then he turns to the eyes of God. He sees every step a man takes, and no darkness anywhere can hide the worker of iniquity from Him, and He hears the cry of the afflicted. Verse 29 speaks straight into the silence this series is named for: “When He remains silent, who can condemn Him?” Elihu acknowledges the hiddenness, and yet he draws the opposite conclusion from the one Job has drawn. God’s silence is not injustice; it is the freedom of a righteous God whose timing we cannot command. The sentence about silence is true. The implication that Job’s protest amounts to rebellion is the overreach.

Job 34:31–37 (BSB)

³¹ Suppose someone says to God, ‘I have endured my punishment; I will offend no more. ³² Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I will not do it again.’ ³³ Should God repay you on your own terms when you have disavowed Him? You must choose, not I; so tell me what you know. ³⁴ Men of understanding will declare to me, and the wise men who hear me will say: ³⁵ ‘Job speaks without knowledge; his words lack insight.’ ³⁶ If only Job were tried to the utmost for answering like a wicked man. ³⁷ For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us and multiplies his words against God.”

He commends a teachable posture, “Teach me what I cannot see,” and Job will in fact take something very like that posture before God in the end (42:1–6). Then the tone hardens. Elihu wishes Job tried to the utmost, and he accuses him of adding rebellion to his sin. This is where the young man, for all his good theology, slips toward the very error of the friends. That God is just is true; that Job’s suffering therefore proves Job’s guilt is false. “Job speaks without knowledge” is half-right, for Job has indeed spoken beyond his sight, but so has Elihu. The One who will answer from the whirlwind will say of Job, and not of the three friends, that he has spoken of Him what is right (42:7), and He will not so much as name Elihu. God’s justice is sure. Our ability to read its verdict on another man’s life is not.