Elihu Condemns Self-Righteousness

1Elihu continued and said:

2‘Do you think this to be just?

You say, “I am in the right before God.”

3If 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;

observe 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 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.

10But no one says, “Where is God my Maker,

who gives strength in the night,

11who teaches us more than the animals of the earth,

and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?”

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

because of the pride of evildoers.

13Surely God does not hear an empty cry,

nor does the Almighty35.13 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai 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 greatly heed transgression,35.15 Theodotion Symmachus Compare Vg: Meaning of Heb uncertain

16Job opens his mouth in empty talk,

he multiplies words without knowledge.’