35:1 Then Elihu answered:

35:2 “Do you think this to be ²  just:

when ³  you say, ‘My right before God.’ ⁴ 

35:3 But you say, ‘What will it profit you,’ ⁵ 

and, ‘What do I gain by not sinning?’ ⁶ 

35:4 I ⁷  will reply to you, ⁸ 

and to your friends with you.

35:5 Gaze at the heavens and see;

consider the clouds, which are higher than you! ⁹ 

35:6 If you sin, how does it affect God? ¹⁰ 

If your transgressions are many,

what does it do to him? ¹¹ 

35:7 If you are righteous, what do you give to God,

or what does he receive from your hand?

35:8 Your wickedness affects only ¹²  a person like yourself,

and your righteousness only other people. ¹³ 

35:9 “People ¹⁴  cry out

because of the excess of oppression; ¹⁵ 

they cry out for help

because of the power ¹⁶  of the mighty. ¹⁷ 

35:10 But no one says, ‘Where is God, my Creator,

who gives songs in the night, ¹⁸ 

35:11 who teaches us ¹⁹  more than ²⁰  the wild animals of the earth,

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

35:12 Then ²¹  they cry out – but he does not answer –

because of the arrogance of the wicked.

35:13 Surely it is an empty cry ²²  – God does not hear it;

the Almighty does not take notice of it.

35:14 How much less, then,

when you say that you do not perceive him,

that the case is before him

and you are waiting for him! ²³ 

35:15 And further, ²⁴  when you say

that his anger does not punish, ²⁵ 

and that he does not know transgression! ²⁶ 

35:16 So Job opens his mouth to no purpose; ²⁷ 

without knowledge he multiplies words.”