Job 35:1-16

Elihu’s Third Speech

35:1 Then Elihu answered:

35:2 “Do you think this to be just:

when you say, ‘My right before God.’

35:3 But you say, ‘What will it profit you,’

and, ‘What do I gain by not sinning?’

35:4 I will reply to you,

and to your friends with you.

35:5 Gaze at the heavens and see;

consider the clouds, which are higher than you!

35:6 If you sin, how does it affect God?

If your transgressions are many,

what does it do to him?

35:7 If you are righteous, what do you give to God,

or what does he receive from your hand?

35:8 Your wickedness affects only a person like yourself,

and your righteousness only other people.

35:9 “People cry out

because of the excess of oppression;

they cry out for help

because of the power of the mighty.

35:10 But no one says, ‘Where is God, my Creator,

who gives songs in the night,

35:11 who teaches us more than the wild animals of the earth,

and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’

35:12 Then they cry out – but he does not answer –

because of the arrogance of the wicked.

35:13 Surely it is an empty cry – God does not hear it;

the Almighty does not take notice of it.

35:14 How much less, then,

when you say that you do not perceive him,

that the case is before him

and you are waiting for him!

35:15 And further, when you say

that his anger does not punish,

and that he does not know transgression!

35:16 So Job opens his mouth to no purpose;

without knowledge he multiplies words.”