Job 35

¹ And Elihu answered and said:

² Do you think this is right?
Do you say, 'My righteousness is more than God's'?

³ For you say, 'What advantage is it to you,
and what profit do I have, more than if I had sinned?'

⁴ I will answer you
and your friends with you.

⁵ Look at the heavens and see;
behold the clouds, which are higher than you.

⁶ If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him?
And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?

⁷ If you are righteous, what do you give to him?
Or what does he receive from your hand?

⁸ Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself,
and your righteousness a son of man.

⁹ Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out;
they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.

¹⁰ But none says, 'Where is God my Maker,
who gives songs in the night,'

¹¹ who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth
and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?

¹² There they cry out, but he does not answer,
because of the pride of evil men.

¹³ Surely God does not hear an empty cry,
nor does the Almighty regard it.

¹⁴ How much less when you say that you do not see him,
that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!

¹⁵ And now, because his anger does not punish,
and he does not take much notice of transgression,

¹⁶ Job opens his mouth in empty talk;
he multiplies words without knowledge.