| 1 | Elihu continued and said: |
| 2 | “Do you think this to be just? You say, ‘I am in the right before God.’ |
| 3 | If 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; observe 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 affects others like you, and your righteousness, other human beings. |
| 9 | “Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out; they call for help because of the arm of the mighty. |
| 10 | But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives strength in the night, |
| 11 | who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’ |
| 12 | There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evildoers. |
| 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 greatly heed transgression, |
| 16 | Job opens his mouth in empty talk, he multiplies words without knowledge.” |