Elihu Sharply Rebukes Job

1Then Elihu continued and said,

2“Do you think this is in accordance with justice?

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

3“For you say, ‘What advantage will it be to [a]You?

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

4“I will answer you,

And your friends with you.

5“Look at the heavens and see;

And look at the clouds—they are higher than you.

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

And if your wrongdoings are many, what do you do to Him?

7“If you are righteous, what do you give to Him,

Or what does He receive from your hand?

8“Your wickedness is for a man like yourself,

And your righteousness is for a son of man.

9“Because of the multitude of oppressions they cry out;

They cry for help because of the arm of the mighty.

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

Who gives songs in the night,

11Who teaches us more than the animals of the earth

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

12“There they cry out, but He does not answer

Because of the pride of evil people.

13“God certainly will not listen to [b]an empty cry,

Nor will the Almighty regard it.

14“How much less when you say you do not look at Him,

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

15“And now, because He has not avenged His anger,

Nor has He acknowledged [c]wrongdoing well,

16So Job opens his mouth with empty words;

He multiplies words without knowledge.”