35:1 Then Elihu said:

35:2 "Do you think this is just? You say, 'I will be cleared by God.'

35:3 Yet you ask him, 'What profit is it to me, and what do I gain by not sinning?'

35:4 "I would like to reply to you and to your friends with you.

35:5 Look up at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds so high above you.

35:6 If you sin, how does that affect him? If your sins are many, what does that do to him?

35:7 If you are righteous, what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand?

35:8 Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only the sons of men.

35:9 "Men cry out under a load of oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the powerful.

35:10 But no one says, 'Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,

35:11 who teaches more to us than to the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?'

35:12 He does not answer when men cry out because of the arrogance of the wicked.

35:13 Indeed, God does not listen to their empty plea; the Almighty pays no attention to it.

35:14 How much less, then, will he listen when you say that you do not see him, that your case is before him and you must wait for him,

35:15 and further, that his anger never punishes and he does not take the least notice of wickedness.

35:16 So Job opens his mouth with empty talk; without knowledge he multiplies words."