1 Then Elihu said: |
2 "Do you think this is just? You say, 'I will be cleared by God.' |
3 Yet you ask him, 'What profit is it to me, and what do I gain by not sinning?' |
4 "I would like to reply to you and to your friends with you. |
5 Look up at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds so high above you. |
6 If you sin, how does that affect him? If your sins are many, what does that 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 affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only the sons of men. |
9 "Men cry out under a load of oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the powerful. |
10 But no one says, 'Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, |
11 who teaches more to us than to the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?' |
12 He does not answer when men cry out because of the arrogance of the wicked. |
13 Indeed, God does not listen to their empty plea; the Almighty pays no attention to it. |
14 How much less, then, will he listen when you say that you do not see him, that your case is before him and you must wait for him, |
15 and further, that his anger never punishes and he does not take the least notice of wickedness. |
16 So Job opens his mouth with empty talk; without knowledge he multiplies words." |