Job 35 — NETB

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