Elihu Condemns Job

¹And Elihu answered and said:

²“Do you think this to be just?

Do you say, ‘It is my right before God,’

³that you ask, ‘What advantage have I?

How am I better off than if I had sinned?’

⁴I will answer you

and your friends with you.

⁵Look at the heavens, and see;

and behold the clouds, which are higher than you.

⁶If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him?

And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?

⁷If you are righteous, what do you give to him?

Or what does he receive from your hand?

⁸Your 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.1

¹⁰But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker,

who gives songs in the night,

¹¹who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth

and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’

¹²There they cry out, but he does not answer,

because of the pride of evil men.

¹³Surely God does not hear an empty cry,

nor does the Almighty regard it.

¹⁴How much less when you say that you do not see him,

that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!

¹⁵And now, because his anger does not punish,

and he does not take much note of transgression,2

¹⁶Job opens his mouth in empty talk;

he multiplies words without knowledge.”