Job 35

What do you give to God?

¹Then Elihu answered: ²Do you think this is right? \q You say, “I am more in the right than God.”^{a 3}For you ask, “What good is it to me? \q What do I gain by not sinning?” ⁴I will give you an answer, \q you and your friends with you. ⁵Look up at the sky and see; \q gaze at the clouds high above you. ⁶If you sin, what harm do you do him? \q If your rebellions are many, what does that do to him? ⁷If you are righteous, what do you give him? \q What does he receive from you? ⁸Your wickedness affects only people like yourself; \q your righteousness, only other human beings. ⁹People cry out under the weight of oppression; \q they call for help against the power of the mighty. ¹⁰But no one says, “Where is God my Maker, \q who gives songs in the night, ¹¹who teaches us more than the animals of the earth \q and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?”^{b 12}There they cry out, but he does not answer, \q because of the pride of the wicked.^{c 13}Surely God does not listen to an empty cry; \q the Almighty pays it no attention. ¹⁴How much less will he listen when you say you do not see him, \q that your case is before him and you are waiting for him!^{d 15}And now, because his anger does not punish, \q and he pays little heed to wrongdoing,^{e 16}Job opens his mouth with empty talk; \q he piles up words without knowledge.