Job 35

Elihu Reminds Job of God’s Justice

¹Then Elihu said:

²“Do you think it is right for you to claim,

‘I am righteous before God’?

³For you also ask, ‘What’s in it for me?

What’s the use of living a righteous life?’

⁴“I will answer you

and all your friends, too.

⁵Look up into the sky,

and see the clouds high above you.

⁶If you sin, how does that affect God?

Even if you sin again and again,

what effect will it have on him?

⁷If you are good, is this some great gift to him?

What could you possibly give him?

⁸No, your sins affect only people like yourself,

and your good deeds also affect only humans.

⁹“People cry out when they are oppressed.

They groan beneath the power of the mighty.

¹⁰Yet they don’t ask, ‘Where is God my Creator,

the one who gives songs in the night?

¹¹Where is the one who makes us smarter than the animals

and wiser than the birds of the sky?’

¹²And when they cry out, God does not answer

because of their pride.

¹³But it is wrong to say God doesn’t listen,

to say the Almighty isn’t concerned.

¹⁴You say you can’t see him,

but he will bring justice if you will only wait.^a

¹⁵You say he does not respond to sinners with anger

and is not greatly concerned about wickedness.^b

¹⁶But you are talking nonsense, Job.

You have spoken like a fool.”