Chapter 35

Then Elihu continued, saying:
Do you think it is just when you say, "I am righteous before God"?
For you ask, "What does it profit you, and what benefit comes to me, if I do not sin?"
I will answer you and your friends with you.
Look at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds high above you.
If you sin, how does it affect God? If you multiply your transgressions, what does it do to him?
If you are righteous, what do you give him, or what does he receive from your hand?
Your wickedness affects a person like yourself, and your righteousness, a son of man.
People cry out because of severe oppression; they shout for help because of the power of the mighty.
But no one asks, "Where is God my Maker, who provides us with songs in the night,
who gives us more understanding than the animals of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?"
There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evil people.
Indeed, God does not listen to empty cries, and the Almighty does not take note of it--
how much less when you complain that you do not see him, that your case is before him and you are waiting for him.
But now, because God's anger does not punish and he does not pay attention to transgression,
Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge.