NETtext - Job - 35

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."