| | 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." | |
