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Sin’s impact

35 Elihu continued:

Do you think it right?
    You say, “I’m more just than God.”
Yet you ask, “What does it benefit you?
    What have I gained by avoiding sin?”
I’ll answer you,
    and your friends along with you.
Look at the heavens and see;
    scan the clouds high over you.
If you’ve sinned, how have you affected God?
    Your offenses have multiplied;
    what have you done to him?
If you are righteous,
    what do you give to him?
    Or what does he receive from your hand?
Your evil affects others like you,
    and your righteousness affects fellow human beings.
People cry out because of heavy oppression;
    shout under the power of the mighty.
10 But no one says, “Where is God my maker;
    who gives songs in the night;
11     who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth,
    makes us wiser than the birds in the sky?”
12 Then they cry out; but he doesn’t answer,
    because of the pride of the wicked.
13 God certainly doesn’t respond to a deceitful cry;
    the Almighty doesn’t pay attention to it.
14 Although you say that you don’t see him,
    the case is before him;
    so wait anxiously for him.
15 Even though his anger is now held back,
    a person doesn’t know it’s only delayed.[a]
16 So Job mouths emptiness;
    he piles up ignorant words.

Footnotes

  1. Job 35:15 Heb uncertain

35 Then Elihu said:

“Do you think this is just?
    You say, ‘I am in the right,(A) not God.’(B)
Yet you ask him, ‘What profit is it to me,[a]
    and what do I gain by not sinning?’(C)

“I would like to reply to you
    and to your friends with you.
Look up at the heavens(D) and see;
    gaze at the clouds so high above you.(E)
If you sin, how does that affect him?
    If your sins are many, what does that do to him?(F)
If you are righteous, what do you give to him,(G)
    or what does he receive(H) from your hand?(I)
Your wickedness only affects humans like yourself,(J)
    and your righteousness only other people.(K)

“People cry out(L) under a load of oppression;(M)
    they plead for relief from the arm of the powerful.(N)
10 But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,(O)
    who gives songs(P) in the night,(Q)
11 who teaches(R) us(S) more than he teaches[b] the beasts of the earth
    and makes us wiser than[c] the birds in the sky?’
12 He does not answer(T) when people cry out
    because of the arrogance(U) of the wicked.(V)
13 Indeed, God does not listen to their empty plea;
    the Almighty pays no attention to it.(W)
14 How much less, then, will he listen
    when you say that you do not see him,(X)
that your case(Y) is before him
    and you must wait for him,(Z)
15 and further, that his anger never punishes(AA)
    and he does not take the least notice of wickedness.[d](AB)
16 So Job opens his mouth with empty talk;(AC)
    without knowledge he multiplies words.”(AD)

Footnotes

  1. Job 35:3 Or you
  2. Job 35:11 Or night, / 11 who teaches us by
  3. Job 35:11 Or us wise by
  4. Job 35:15 Symmachus, Theodotion and Vulgate; the meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.