Job 35

Elihu Condemns Job

¹Moreover, Elihu spoke up and said,[#Hebrew “And”; #Literally “answered”; see NET]

²“Do you think this is justice when you say,

‘I am right before God’?

³If you ask what it profits you:

‘How do I benefit by refraining from my sin?’

⁴I myself will give answer to you[#Emphatic personal pronoun; #Literally “will return you words”]

and to your friends with you.

⁵“Look at the heavens, and see;

and observe the clouds that are higher than you.

⁶If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him?

And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?

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

or what does he receive from your hand?

⁸Your wickedness affects a person like yourself,

and your righteousness affects humans.

⁹“Because of the multitude of oppressions, they cry out;

they cry for help because of the arm of the mighty.

¹⁰But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,[#Hebrew “And”]

who gives songs in the night,

¹¹who teaches us more than the animals of the earth

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

¹²There they cry out, but he does not answer[#Hebrew “and”]

because of the pride of evildoers.

¹³“Surely God does not hear an empty plea,

and Shaddai does not regard it.

¹⁴How much less when you say that you do not see him,[#Literally “Also for”]

that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!

¹⁵But now, because his anger does not punish,[#Hebrew “And”]

and he does not acknowledge the transgression at all,

¹⁶therefore Job opens his mouth in empty talk—[#Hebrew “and,” or “so”]

without knowledge he multiplies words.”