Job 35, side by side

¹And Elihu went on to say:

¹Elihu spake moreover, and said,

²“Do you think this is just? You say, ‘I am more righteous than God.’

²Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?

³For you ask, ‘What does it profit me, and what benefit do I gain apart from sin?’

³For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?

⁴I will reply to you and to your friends as well.

⁴I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.

⁵Look to the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds high above you.

⁵Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.

⁶If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? If you multiply your transgressions, what do you do to Him?

⁶If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?

⁷If you are righteous, what do you give Him, or what does He receive from your hand?

⁷If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?

⁸Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only a son of man.

⁸Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.

⁹Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.

⁹By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty.

¹⁰But no one asks, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives us songs in the night,

¹⁰But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night;

¹¹who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’

¹¹Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?

¹²There they cry out, but He does not answer, because of the pride of evil men.

¹²There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men.

¹³Surely God does not listen to empty pleas, and the Almighty does not take note of it.

¹³Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.

¹⁴How much less, then, when you say that you do not see Him, that your case is before Him and you must wait for Him,

¹⁴Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him.

¹⁵and further, that in His anger He has not punished or taken much notice of folly!

¹⁵But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity:

¹⁶So Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge.”

¹⁶Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge.