1Elihu continued:
2Do you think it right? You say, "I'm more just than God."
3Yet you ask, "What does it benefit you? What have I gained by avoiding sin?"
4I'll answer you, and your friends along with you.
5Look at the heavens and see; scan the clouds high over you.
6If you've sinned, how have you affected God? Your offenses have multiplied; what have you done to him?
7If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand?
8Your evil affects others like you, and your righteousness affects fellow human beings.
9People cry out because of heavy oppression; shout under the power of the mighty.
10But no one says, "Where is God my maker; who gives songs in the night;
11who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, makes us wiser than the birds in the sky?"
12Then they cry out; but he doesn't answer, because of the pride of the wicked.
13God certainly doesn't respond to a deceitful cry; the Almighty doesn't pay attention to it.
14Although you say that you don't see him, the case is before him; so wait anxiously for him.
15Even though his anger is now held back, a person doesn't know it's only delayed.
16So Job mouths emptiness; he piles up ignorant words.