NIV

Job 35

1<pb/>Then Elihu said:
2<pb/><t>“Do you think this is just?</t> <t>You say, ‘I am in the right, not God.’</t>
3<t>Yet you ask him, ‘What profit is it to me,<f>[58]</f></t> <t>and what do I gain by not sinning?’ <pb/></t>
4<t>“I would like to reply to you</t> <t>and to your friends with you.</t>
5<t>Look up at the heavens and see;</t> <t>gaze at the clouds so high above you.</t>
6<t>If you sin, how does that affect him?</t> <t>If your sins are many, what does that do to him?</t>
7<t>If you are righteous, what do you give to him,</t> <t>or what does he receive from your hand?</t>
8<t>Your wickedness only affects humans like yourself,</t> <t>and your righteousness only other people. <pb/></t>
9<t>“People cry out under a load of oppression;</t> <t>they plead for relief from the arm of the powerful.</t>
10<t>But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,</t> <t>who gives songs in the night,</t>
11<t>who teaches us more than he teaches<f>[59]</f> the beasts of the earth</t> <t>and makes us wiser than<f>[60]</f> the birds in the sky?’</t>
12<t>He does not answer when people cry out</t> <t>because of the arrogance of the wicked.</t>
13<t>Indeed, God does not listen to their empty plea;</t> <t>the Almighty pays no attention to it.</t>
14<t>How much less, then, will he listen</t> <t>when you say that you do not see him,</t> <t>that your case is before him</t> <t>and you must wait for him,</t>
15<t>and further, that his anger never punishes</t> <t>and he does not take the least notice of wickedness.<f>[61]</f></t>
16<t>So Job opens his mouth with empty talk;</t> <t>without knowledge he multiplies words.”</t>