Elihu Condemns Self-Righteousness

¹Elihu spoke again and said:

²“Do you think this is right,

that you say, ‘My righteousness is before God’?

³For you said, ‘What advantage will it be to me?

What profit will I have if I am cleansed from my sin?’

⁴“I will answer you,

and your companions with you.

⁵Look unto the heavens and see,

and behold the clouds that are higher than you.

⁶If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him?[#Pr 8:36; Jer 7:19]

Or if your transgressions are multiplied, what does it do to Him?

⁷If you are righteous, what does it give Him?[#Job 22:2–3]

Or what does He receive from your hand?

⁸Your wickedness may hurt a man like you,

and your righteousness may profit a son of man.

⁹“Because of the many oppressions they cry out;[#Ex 2:23; Job 34:28]

they cry out because of the arm of the mighty.

¹⁰But none says, ‘Where is God my maker,

who gives songs in the night,

¹¹who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth,[#Ps 94:12]

and makes us wiser than the birds of heaven?’

¹²There they cry out, but He does not answer[#Pr 1:28]

because of the pride of evil men.

¹³Surely God will not hear vanity,[#Pr 15:29; Isa 1:15]

nor will the Almighty regard it.

¹⁴Although you say you do not see Him,[#Job 9:11]

yet judgment is before Him,

and you must trust in Him.

¹⁵But now, because He has not punished in His anger,[#Ps 89:32]

nor taken much notice of folly,

¹⁶therefore Job opens his mouth in vain;

he multiplies words without knowledge.”