Job 35

Elihu Challenges Job’s Thinking

1 Then Elihu spoke again:

2 “Do you think this is fair when you say, ‘I am more righteous than God’,

3 For you say, ‘What is in it for me, What do I gain if I do not sin?’”

God Is Not Affected by Man’s Sin or Righteousness

4 “I will answer you, and your friends with you.

5 Look up at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds, they are higher than you.

6 If you sin, how does that hurt God, Do your sins even touch Him,

7 If you are righteous, what do you give Him, What does He get from your hand,

8 Your wickedness only hurts a man like you, your righteousness only helps a fellow human.

Why God Does Not Always Answer

9 People cry out under oppression; they groan from the power of the mighty.

10 But nobody 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 sky,’

12 They cry out, but God does not answer because of the pride of evil men.

13 Surely God does not listen to empty cries, the Almighty pays no attention to them.

14 How much less when you say you do not see Him, Judgment is before Him, so trust Him.

15 But now, because His anger does not punish and He does not take full notice of wickedness,

16 Job opens his mouth in vain, multiplies words without knowledge.”