Job, 35

1. Elihu continued his speech. He said:

1. Elihu spake moreover, and said,

2. Do you think you can prove yourself upright and establish your uprightness before God

2. Thinkest thou this to be right, [that] thou saidst, My righteousness [is] more than God's?

3. by daring to say to him, 'What does it matter to you, or how does it benefit me, whether I have sinned or not?'

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

4. Very well, I shall tell you and your friends as well.

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

5. Take a look at the skies and see, observe how high the clouds are above you.

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

6. If you sin, how can you affect him? If you heap up crimes, what effect has it on him?

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

7. If you are upright, what do you give him, what benefit does he receive at your hands?

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

8. Your wickedness affects only your fellows, your uprightness, other human beings.

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

9. They too groan under the weight of oppression, they cry for help under the tyranny of the mighty,

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

10. but none of them thinks of saying, 'Where is God, my Maker, who makes glad songs ring out at night,

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

11. who has made us more intelligent than wild animals wiser than birds in the sky?'

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

12. Cry they may, but get no answer, to be spared from the arrogance of the wicked.

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

13. Of course God does not listen to trivialities, Shaddai pays no attention to them.

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

14. And how much less when you say, 'I cannot see him, my case is open and I am waiting for him.'

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

15. Or, 'His anger never punishes, he does not seem aware of human rebellion.'

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

16. Hence, when Job speaks, he talks nonsense, ignorantly babbling on and on.

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