Elihu Answers Job

1Then Elihu answered and said,

2“Do you think this is according to justice?

Do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s’?

3For you say, ‘What use will it be to [†]You?

What profit will I have, more than if I had sinned?’

4I will respond to you,

And your friends with you.

5Look at the heavens and see;

And perceive the clouds—they are higher than you.

6If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against Him?

And if your transgressions are many, 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 is for a man like yourself,

And your righteousness is for a son of man.

9“Because of many oppressions they cry out;

They cry for help because of the arm of many oppressors.

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

Who gives songs of praise in the night,

11Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth

And makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’

12There they cry out, but He does not answer

Because of the pride of evil men.

13Surely God will not listen to [†]an empty cry,

Nor will the Almighty perceive it.

14How much less when you say you do not perceive Him,

The case is before Him, and you must wait for Him!

15And now, because He has not visited in His anger,

Nor has He acknowledged [†]transgression well,

16So Job opens his mouth vainly;

He multiplies words without knowledge.”