35
1 Then Elihu answered:
2 “Do you think this to be just:
when you say, ‘My right before God.’
3 But you say, ‘What will it profit you,’
and, ‘What do I gain by not sinning?’
4 I will reply to you,
and to your friends with you.
5 Gaze at the heavens and see;
consider the clouds, which are higher than you!
6 If you sin, how does it affect God?
If your transgressions are many,
what does it do to him?
7 If you are righteous, what do you give to God,
or what does he receive from your hand?
8 Your wickedness affects only a person like yourself,
and your righteousness only other people.
9 “People cry out
because of the excess of oppression;
they cry out for help
because of the power of the mighty.
10 But no one says, ‘Where is God, my Creator,
who gives songs in the night,
11 who teaches us more than the wild animals of the earth,
and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’
12 Then they cry out – but he does not answer –
because of the arrogance of the wicked.
13 Surely it is an empty cry – God does not hear it;
the Almighty does not take notice of it.
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!
15 And further, when you say
that his anger does not punish,
and that he does not know transgression!
16 So Job opens his mouth to no purpose;
without knowledge he multiplies words.”