| Berean Study Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1And Elihu went on to say: | 1Then Elihu said: |
| 2“Do you think this is just? You say, ‘I am more righteous than God.’ | 2“Do you think it is right for you to claim, ‘I am righteous before God’? |
| 3For you ask, ‘What does it profit me, and what benefit do I gain apart from sin?’ | 3For you also ask, ‘What’s in it for me? What’s the use of living a righteous life?’ |
| 4I will reply to you and to your friends as well. | 4“I will answer you and all your friends, too. |
| 5Look to the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds high above you. | 5Look up into the sky, and see the clouds high above you. |
| 6If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? If you multiply your transgressions, what do you do to Him? | 6If you sin, how does that affect God? Even if you sin again and again, what effect will it have on him? |
| 7If you are righteous, what do you give Him, or what does He receive from your hand? | 7If you are good, is this some great gift to him? What could you possibly give him? |
| 8Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only a son of man. | 8No, your sins affect only people like yourself, and your good deeds also affect only humans. |
| 9Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty. | 9“People cry out when they are oppressed. They groan beneath the power of the mighty. |
| 10But no one asks, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives us songs in the night, | 10Yet they don’t ask, ‘Where is God my Creator, the one who gives songs in the night? |
| 11who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’ | 11Where is the one who makes us smarter than the animals and wiser than the birds of the sky?’ |
| 12There they cry out, but He does not answer, because of the pride of evil men. | 12And when they cry out, God does not answer because of their pride. |
| 13Surely God does not listen to empty pleas, and the Almighty does not take note of it. | 13But it is wrong to say God doesn’t listen, to say the Almighty isn’t concerned. |
| 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, | 14You say you can’t see him, but he will bring justice if you will only wait. |
| 15and further, that in His anger He has not punished or taken much notice of folly! | 15You say he does not respond to sinners with anger and is not greatly concerned about wickedness. |
| 16So Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge.” | 16But you are talking nonsense, Job. You have spoken like a fool.” |
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