35:1 ELIHU SPOKE further [to Job] and said, |
35:2 Do you think this is your right, {or} are you saying, My righteousness is more than God's, |
35:3 That you ask, What advantage have you? How am I profited more than if I had sinned? |
35:4 I will answer you and your companions with you. |
35:5 Look to the heavens and see; and behold the skies which are higher than you. |
35:6 If you have sinned, how does that affect God? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what have you done to Him? |
35:7 If you are righteous, what do you [by that] give God? Or what does He receive from your hand? |
35:8 Your wickedness touches and affects a man such as you are, and your righteousness is for yourself, one of the human race [but it cannot touch God, Who is above such influence]. |
35:9 Because of the multitudes of oppressions the people cry out; they cry for help because of the violence of the mighty. |
35:10 But no one says, Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs of rejoicing in the night, |
35:11 Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens? |
35:12 [The people] cry out because of the pride of evil men, but He does not answer. |
35:13 Surely God will refuse to answer [the cry which is] vanity (vain and empty--instead of abiding trust); neither will the Almighty regard it-- |
35:14 How much less when [missing His righteous judgment on earth] you say that you do not see Him, that your cause is before Him, and you are waiting for Him! |
35:15 But now because God has not [speedily] punished in His anger and seems to be unaware of the wrong {and} oppression [of which a person is guilty], |
35:16 Job uselessly opens his mouth and multiplies words without knowledge [drawing the worthless conclusion that the righteous have no more advantage than the wicked]. |