1Then Elihu said:
2"Do you think this is fair? You say, 'God will show that I am right,'
3but you also ask, 'What's the use? I don't gain anything by not sinning.'
4"I will answer you and your friends who are with you.
5Look up at the sky and see the clouds so high above you.
6If you sin, it does nothing to God; even if your sins are many, they do nothing to him.
7If you are good, you give nothing to God; he receives nothing from your hand.
8Your evil ways only hurt a man like yourself, and the good you do only helps other human beings.
9"People cry out when they are in trouble; they beg for relief from powerful people.
10But no one asks, 'Where is God, my Maker, who gives us songs in the night,
11who makes us smarter than the animals of the earth and wiser than the birds of the air?'
12God does not answer evil people when they cry out, because the wicked are proud.
13God does not listen to their useless begging; the Almighty pays no attention to them.
14He will listen to you even less when you say that you do not see him, that your case is before him, that you must wait for him,
15that his anger never punishes, and that he doesn't notice evil.
16So Job is only speaking nonsense, saying many words without knowing what is true."