Job 35 DBY
Summary: Elihu takes up Job's claim that his righteousness gains him nothing and that he is no better off than if he had sinned, and counters that human righteousness or wickedness primarily affects other people, not God, whose greatness is unaffected by human behavior either way. He explains that though the oppressed cry out under injustice, many such cries go seemingly unanswered because they are offered with pride or without truly seeking God, not because God is unjust or careless. Elihu suggests that Job's own complaints have been full of empty words lacking real knowledge, and that God's silence should not be read as evidence of wrongdoing on God's part.
1Moreover Elihu answered and said,
2Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more thanGod's?
3For thou hast asked of what profit it is unto thee: what do I gain more than if I had sinned?
4I will reply to thee in words, and to thy companions with thee.
5Look unto the heavens and see; and survey the skies: they are higher than thou.
6If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? If thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?
7If thou be righteous, what givest thou to him? or what doth he receive of thy hand?
8Thy wickedness [may affect] a man as thou [art], and thy righteousness a son of man.
9By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry; they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty:
10But none saith, Where isGod my Maker, who giveth songs in the night,
11Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowl of the heavens?
12There they cry, and he answereth not, because of the pride of evil men.
13SurelyGod will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.
14Although thou sayest thou dost not see him, judgment is before him, therefore wait for him.
15But now, because he hath not visited in his anger, doth not [Job] know [his] great arrogancy?
16For Job hath opened his mouth in vanity, and made words abundant without knowledge.
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