Job 35
1 And Elihu went on to say:
And Elius resumed and said,
2 “Do you think this is just? You say, ‘I am more righteous than God.’
What is this that thou thinkest to be according to right? who art thou that thou hast said, I am righteous before the Lord?
3 For you ask, ‘What does it profit me, and what benefit do I gain apart from sin?’
I will answer thee, and thy three friends.
4 I will reply to you and to your friends as well.
Look up to the sky and see; and consider the clouds, how high [they are] above thee.
5 Look to the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds high above you.
If thou hast sinned, what wilt thou do?
6 If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? If you multiply your transgressions, what do you do to Him?
and if too thou hast transgressed much, what canst thou perform?
7 If you are righteous, what do you give Him, or what does He receive from your hand?
And suppose thou art righteous, what wilt thou give him? or what shall he receive of thy hand?
8 Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only a son of man.
Thy ungodliness [may affect] a man who is like to thee; or thy righteousness a son of man.
9 Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.
They that are oppressed of a multitude will be ready to cry out; they will call for help because of the arm of many.
10 But no one asks, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives us songs in the night,
But none said, Where is God that made me, who appoints the night-watches;
11 who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’
who makes me to differ from the four-footed beasts of the earth, and from the birds of the sky?
12 There they cry out, but He does not answer, because of the pride of evil men.
There they shall cry, and none shall hearken, even because of the insolence of wicked men.
13 Surely God does not listen to empty pleas, and the Almighty does not take note of it.
For the Lord desires not to look on error, for he is the Almighty One.
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,
He beholds them that perform lawless deeds, and he will save me: and do thou plead before him, if thou canst praise him, as it is [possible] even now.
15 and further, that in His anger He has not punished or taken much notice of folly!
For he is not [now] regarding his wrath, nor has he noticed severely any trespass.
16 So Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge.”
Yet Job vainly opens his mouth, in ignorance he multiplies words.
