Job 35 WBT
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.
1Elihu spoke moreover, and said,
2Thinkest thou this to be right, [that] thou saidst, My righteousness [is] more than God's?
3For thou saidst, What advantage will it be to thee? [and], What profit shall I have, [if I be cleansed] from my sin?
4I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.
5Look to the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds [which] are higher than thou.
6If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or [if] thy transgressions are multiplied, what doest thou to him?
7If thou art righteous, what givest thou to him? or what receiveth he from thy hand?
8Thy wickedness [may hurt] a man as thou [art]: and thy righteousness [may profit] the son of man.
9By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make [the oppressed] to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty.
10But none saith, Where [is] God my maker, who giveth songs in the night;
11Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?
12There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men.
13Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.
14Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, [yet] judgment [is] before him; therefore trust thou in him.
15But now, because [it is] not [so], he hath visited in his anger; yet he knoweth [it] not in great extremity:
16Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge.
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