Job 36:15–36:23, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Job 36:15–36:23
Elihu Applies the Discipline Theory Directly to Job
The theory is now pressed onto Job's own seat
God delivers the poor in his affliction and opens their ears in oppression. Likewise he would have removed Job out of a strait into a broad place where there is no straitness, and what should be set on Job's table would be full of fatness.
But Job is filled with the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold on him. Because there is wrath, beware lest God take him away with a stroke, and then a great ransom cannot deliver him. Will he esteem your riches? No, not gold, nor all the forces of strength.
Desire not the night, and do not choose iniquity because of the pain
Elihu tells Job not to desire the night, when people are cut off in their place. Take heed, regard not iniquity, for this Job has chosen rather than affliction. Who has enjoined God his way? Who can say, You have wrought iniquity? Remember to magnify God's work, which people behold.
The application assumes that Job's strait is the classroom of 36:5-14 and that Job prefers a charge against God to remaining under the lesson. If that is how the sores are read, the prologue is denied. The warning against a death-wish night must not be heard as a ban on lament, medicine, or mental-health care. Choosing iniquity is one thing. Choosing a physician is another. Elihu's ransom language cannot be turned into a reason to withhold either prayer or treatment.
How this should shape us
Do not map a neighbor's crisis onto a discipline chart God has not shown you. Magnify God's work. Seek a broad place for the afflicted by justice and by care, not by threatening a stroke if they will not call their pain deserved.
Teach it back
Explain Job 36:15–36:23 in your own words. Name the speaker, the unit's place in Job, one source-controlled textual or literary observation, one uncertainty, and one harmful use the passage does not authorize.
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Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Job 36:15–36:23, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 36:15–36:23
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 36:15–36:23.
Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 36:15–36:23
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Enter the Bible Job course, Introductory Issues and Outline: Elihu speeches; applied to Job 36:15–36:23
Supports: Polyphony, retribution critique, justice, Job's response, divine verdict, and the book's interpretive openness.
Ausloos, 'A Matter of Justice,' OTE 36.1 (2023), pp. 151-165, divine speeches and unresolved justice question; applied to Job 36:15–36:23
Supports: Communication safeguards against romanticizing, sensationalizing, diagnosing, blaming, or simplifying death wishes, despair, severe loss, and suicide-related material; not exegesis.
WHO, Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023, quick guide p. xiii, evidence pp. 7-10, dos and don'ts pp. 11-16; applied only to modern safety-aware presentation of Job 36:15–36:23
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 36:15–36:23, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 36:15–36:23
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 36:15–36:23.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 36:15–36:23
Open the official NET Job PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Job course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Daniel J. Simundson and Kathryn Schifferdecker
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current online edition inspected 2026
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Job course, Introductory Issues and Outline: Elihu speeches; applied to Job 36:15–36:23
Open the Enter the Bible Job course ↗peer reviewed open access literary and theological article
A Matter of Justice: The Openness of the Book of Job
Hans Ausloos
Old Testament Essays 36.1, 2023
Supports: Polyphony, retribution critique, justice, Job's response, divine verdict, and the book's interpretive openness.
Exact location: Ausloos, 'A Matter of Justice,' OTE 36.1 (2023), pp. 151-165, divine speeches and unresolved justice question; applied to Job 36:15–36:23
Open Ausloos on Job and justice ↗public health communication guidance
Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023
World Health Organization
World Health Organization, 2023
Supports: Communication safeguards against romanticizing, sensationalizing, diagnosing, blaming, or simplifying death wishes, despair, severe loss, and suicide-related material; not exegesis.
Exact location: WHO, Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023, quick guide p. xiii, evidence pp. 7-10, dos and don'ts pp. 11-16; applied only to modern safety-aware presentation of Job 36:15–36:23
Open the WHO communication guide ↗