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Elihu Condemns Job

 And Elihu answered and said:

² “Do you think this to be just?
Do you say, ‘It is my right before God,’
³ that you ask, ‘What advantage have I?
How am I better off than if I had sinned?’
⁴ I will answer you
and your friends with you.
⁵ Look at the heavens, and see;
and behold the clouds, which are higher than you.
⁶ If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him?
And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
⁷ If you are righteous, what do you give to him?
Or what does he receive from your hand?
⁸ Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself,
and your righteousness a son of man.

⁹ “Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out;
they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.^[a]
10 But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
who gives songs in the night,
¹¹ who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth
and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’
¹² There they cry out, but he does not answer,
because of the pride of evil men.
¹³ Surely God does not hear an empty cry,
nor does the Almighty regard it.
¹⁴ How much less when you say that you do not see him,
that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!
¹⁵ And now, because his anger does not punish,
and he does not take much note of transgression,^[b]
16 Job opens his mouth in empty talk;
he multiplies words without knowledge.”

Footnotes:

1. Job 35:9 Or the many
2. Job 35:15 Theodotion, Symmachus (compare Vulgate); the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain

Cross references:

1. Job 35:2 : See ch. 32:2
2. Job 35:3 : See ch. 34:9
3. Job 35:4 : ch. 34:8, 36
4. Job 35:5 : [ch. 22:12]
5. Job 35:6 : Prov. 8:36; Jer. 7:19
6. Job 35:7 : ch. 22:2, 3; Prov. 9:12; Luke 17:10; [ch. 41:11; Rom. 11:35]
7. Job 35:8 : ch. 25:6
8. Job 35:9 : Amos 3:9
9. Job 35:9 : Ex. 2:23; [ch. 34:28]
10. Job 35:9 : [ch. 22:8]
11. Job 35:10 : ch. 4:17; Deut. 32:6
12. Job 35:10 : Ps. 42:8; 77:6; 149:5; [Acts 16:25]
13. Job 35:11 : ch. 36:22; Ps. 94:12; Isa. 28:26
14. Job 35:12 : See ch. 27:9
15. Job 35:14 : ch. 9:11; 23:8, 9
16. Job 35:14 : [ch. 13:15]
17. Job 35:15 : Num. 16:29; Ps. 89:32
18. Job 35:16 : ch. 34:37
19. Job 35:16 : ch. 34:35; 36:12; 38:2; 42:3