Job 35

Elihu’s Third Speech#sn This short speech falls into two sections: Elihu refutes Job’s claim that goodness avails nothing (35:2-8), asserting that when the cry of the afflicted goes unanswered they have not learned their lesson (35:9-16).

1Then Elihu answered:

2“Do you think this to be just: when you say, ‘My right before God.’

3But you say, ‘What will it profit you,’ and, ‘What do I gain by not sinning?’

4I will reply to you, 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? 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, 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.

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

12Then they cry out – but he does not answer – because of the arrogance of the wicked.

13Surely it is an empty cry – God does not hear it; 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 that his anger does not punish, and that he does not know transgression!

16So Job opens his mouth to no purpose; without knowledge he multiplies words.”