Job 35

1 And Elihu went on to say:

1 Elihu spake moreover, and said,

2 “Do you think this is just? You say, ‘I am more righteous than God.’

2 Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?

3 For you ask, ‘What does it profit me, and what benefit do I gain apart from sin?’

3 For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?

4 I will reply to you and to your friends as well.

4 I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.

5 Look to the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds high above you.

5 Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.

6 If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? If you multiply your transgressions, what do you do to Him?

6 If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?

7 If you are righteous, what do you give Him, or what does He receive from your hand?

7 If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?

8 Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only a son of man.

8 Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.

9 Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.

9 By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty.

10 But no one asks, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives us songs in the night,

10 But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night;

11 who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’

11 Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?

12 There they cry out, but He does not answer, because of the pride of evil men.

12 There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men.

13 Surely God does not listen to empty pleas, and the Almighty does not take note of it.

13 Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.

14 How much less, then, when you say that you do not see Him, that your case is before Him and you must wait for Him,

14 Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him.

15 and further, that in His anger He has not punished or taken much notice of folly!

15 But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity:

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

16 Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge.