Elihu Recalls God’s Justice

And Elihu went on to say:

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“ Do you think this is just?

You say,‘I am more righteous than God.’[fn]

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For you ask,‘What does it profit me,

and what benefit do I gain apart from sin?’

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I will reply to you

and to your friends as well.

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Look to the heavens and see;

gaze at the clouds high above you.

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If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him?

If you multiply your transgressions, what do you do to Him?

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If you are righteous, what do you give Him,

or what does He receive from your hand?

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Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself,

and your righteousness only a son of man.

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Men cry out under great oppression;

they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.

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But no one asks,‘Where [is] God my Maker,

who gives us songs in the night,

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who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth

and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’

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There they cry out, but He does not answer,

because of the pride of evil men.

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Surely God does not listen to empty pleas,

and the Almighty does not take note of it.

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How much less, then, when you say that you do not see Him,

that your case is before Him and you must wait for Him,

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and further, that [in] His anger vvv He has not punished

[or] taken much notice of folly!

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So Job opens his mouth in vain

and multiplies words without knowledge.” 36