Elihu’s Third Speech

¹Then Elihu answered:

²“Do you think this to be just:[#tn The line could be read as “do you reckon this for justice? Here “to be” is understood.]

when you say, ‘My right before God.’

³But you say, ‘What will it profit you,’[#tn The referent of “you” is usually understood to be God.]

and, ‘What do I gain by not sinning?’

⁴I will reply to you,[#tn The emphatic pronoun calls attention to Elihu who will answer these questions.; #tn The Hebrew text adds, “with words,” but since this is obvious, for stylistic reasons it has not been included in the translation.]

and to your friends with you.

⁵Gaze at the heavens and see;

consider the clouds, which are higher than you!

⁶If you sin, how does it affect God?[#tn Heb “him” (also in v. 7); the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.]

If your transgressions are many,

what does it do to him?

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

or what does he receive from your hand?

⁸Your wickedness affects only a person like yourself,[#tn The phrase “affects only” is supplied in the translation of this nominal sentence.sn According to Strahan, “Elihu exalts God’s greatness at the cost of His grace, His transcendence at the expense of His immanence. He sets up a material instead of a spiritual stand of profit and loss. He does not realize that God does gain what He desires most by the goodness of men, and loses what He most loves by their evil.”]

and your righteousness only other people.

⁹“People cry out[#tn The word “people” is supplied, because the sentence only has the masculine plural verb.]

because of the excess of oppression;

they cry out for help

because of the power of the mighty.

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

who gives songs in the night,

¹¹who teaches us more than the wild animals of the earth,[#tn The form in the text, the Piel participle from אָלַף (’alaf, “teach”) is written in a contracted form; the full form is מְאַלְּפֵנוּ (mÿ’allÿfenu).; #tn Some would render this “teaches us by the beasts.” But Elihu is stressing the unique privilege humans have.]

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

¹²Then they cry out – but he does not answer –[#tn The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) connects this verse to v. 11. “There” can be locative or temporal – and here it is temporal (= “then”).]

because of the arrogance of the wicked.

¹³Surely it is an empty cry – God does not hear it;[#tn Heb “surely – vanity, he does not hear.” The cry is an empty cry, not a prayer to God. Dhorme translates it, “It is a pure waste of words.”]

the Almighty does not take notice of it.

¹⁴How much less, then,

when you say that you do not perceive him,

that the case is before him

and you are waiting for him!

¹⁵And further, when you say[#tn The expression “and now” introduces a new complaint of Elihu – in addition to the preceding. Here the verb of v. 14, “you say,” is understood after the temporal ki (כִּי).]

that his anger does not punish,

and that he does not know transgression!

¹⁶So Job opens his mouth to no purpose;[#tn The word הֶבֶל (hevel) means “vanity; futility; to no purpose.”]

without knowledge he multiplies words.”