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Job 34:1-37:24

Hearken unto the Noise of His Voice

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Hearken unto the Noise of His Voice

Job 34:1-37:24

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Hearken unto the Noise of His Voice

Job 34:1-37:24

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About this song

This song belongs to the Job collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book
Job
Collection
Job
Musical styles
World Music
[Verse 1] Elihu calls wise hearers to test words as the palate tastes food. Elihu accuses Job of drinking scorn and implying that delight in God brings no profit. God independently sustains the world and could gather every breath back to himself. Elihu proposes humble confession and says Job has added rebellion through multiplied words. [Pre-Chorus] The word was rare until the silence broke, Then truth stood upright in the words God spoke. [Chorus] Hearken unto the Noise of His Voice, the word came like a flame, Kings could resist but could not silence the name. The prophet stood where fear had drawn the line, And heaven answered in appointed time. [Verse 2] Elihu says empty pride is not heard and criticizes Job's impatient waiting for unseen judgment. He asks for further patience while claiming to speak on God's behalf with knowledge from afar. God is mighty without despising anyone and uses affliction to reveal transgression and open the ear. Elihu warns Job not to let wrath, ransom, wealth, or desire for death turn him toward iniquity. [Bridge] Elihu's heart trembles as God's thunder and lightning spread under heaven. Snow, heavy rain, winter winds, animal shelters, cold. Clouds turn under God's counsel for correction, land, or mercy. Elihu asks Job to stand still before these wonders and closes with the unsearchable Almighty, excellent in power and judgment. [Final Chorus] Hearken unto the Noise of His Voice, the word came like a flame, Kings could resist but could not silence the name. The prophet stood where fear had drawn the line, And heaven answered in the final time. [Outro] The word went out and did not fall in vain. The prophet left the truth upon the plain.

Named in this songJob

About the passage

Job 34: Justice cannot be separated from the ruler of all

Elihu gathers imagined wise listeners and asks them to test Job's words. His central claim is categorical: God does not do wickedly or pervert judgment, and no authority above God delegated the world to him. Every creature depends on the breath God gives, while earthly rank gives no exemption before the Maker of rich and poor alike. Elihu also insists that darkness cannot hide wrongdoing from divine sight and that the cries of afflicted people reach God. These claims directly address several concerns Job has raised, though they still do not disclose the hidden cause of Job's own suffering. The chapter grows harsher at the end. Elihu offers words of teachable repentance, then says Job has spoken without knowledge and should be tested further. His earlier desire to justify Job now stands beside a much more severe judgment on Job's speech.

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Job 35: The cry and the answer

Elihu distinguishes God's independence from the real effects human conduct has on other people. Righteousness does not enrich God as though it were a payment, and sin does not deprive him of something needed for existence. Yet human beings can still harm or benefit one another, which keeps moral action from becoming meaningless. Elihu then turns to the cries produced by oppression and argues that pain alone is not identical with consciously seeking the Maker. That distinction may be intelligible in itself, but Job has in fact spent much of the debate addressing God, so it cannot simply be applied to him without further argument. The chapter closes by insisting that an unseen judge still has the case before him. Elihu urges trust in that interval, then again concludes that Job's multiplied words lack knowledge, preparing a phrase that will echo in the coming divine address.

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Job 36: The teacher turns toward the weather

Elihu begins his final movement with enormous confidence, promising to speak on God's behalf while insisting that divine might does not make the poor invisible. He then treats affliction as a place where the ear can be opened to discipline, a proposal that widens suffering beyond simple punishment without revealing the hidden circumstances of Job's losses. When he applies the scheme directly to Job, his certainty becomes more questionable: he closes off wealth, force, death, and wrongdoing as imagined exits, then calls Job's chosen course iniquity. From there the speech changes scale. God is the teacher no one has instructed, his works can be seen without being fully comprehended, and the weather becomes the field of attention. Rain, cloud, light, and thunder can nourish or judge, so the same created process already resists a one-purpose explanation.

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