Elihu’s Third Speech

35:1 Then Elihu answered:
35:2 “Do you think this to be just:
when you say, ‘My right before God.’
35:3 But you say, ‘What will it profit you,’
and, ‘What do I gain by not sinning?’
35:4 I will reply to you,
and to your friends with you.
35:5 Gaze at the heavens and see;
consider the clouds, which are higher than you!
35:6 If you sin, how does it affect God?
If your transgressions are many,
what does it do to him?
35:7 If you are righteous, what do you give to God,
or what does he receive from your hand?
35:8 Your wickedness affects only a person like yourself,
and your righteousness only other people.

35:9 “People cry out
because of the excess of oppression;
they cry out for help
because of the power of the mighty.
35:10 But no one says, ‘Where is God, my Creator,
who gives songs in the night,
35:11 who teaches us more than the wild animals of the earth,
and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’
35:12 Then they cry out – but he does not answer –
because of the arrogance of the wicked.
35:13 Surely it is an empty cry – God does not hear it;
the Almighty does not take notice of it.
35:14 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!
35:15 And further, when you say
that his anger does not punish,
and that he does not know transgression!
35:16 So Job opens his mouth to no purpose;
without knowledge he multiplies words.”

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