1   Then Elihu went on to say:

2   Do you think that this is a sound plea
or maintain that you are in the right against God?—
3   if you say, ‘What would be the advantage to me?
how much should I gain from sinning?’
4   I will bring arguments myself against you,
you and your three ^note friends.
5   Look up at the sky and then consider,
observe the rain-clouds towering above you.
6   How does it touch him if you have sinned?
However many your misdeeds, what does it mean to him?
7   If you do right, what good do you bring him,
or what does he gain from you?
8   Your wickedness touches only men, such as you are;
the right that you do affects none but mortal man.


9   Men will cry out beneath the burdens of oppression
and call for help against the power of the great;

Speeches of Elihu
10   but none of them asks, ‘Where is God my Maker
who gives protection by night,
11   who grants us more knowledge than the beasts of the earth
and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’
12   So, when they cry out, he does not answer,
because they are self-willed and proud.
13   All to no purpose! God does not listen,
the Almighty does not see.


14   The worse for you when you say, ‘He does ^note not see me’ ^note!
Humble yourself ^note in his presence and wait for his word.
15   But now, because God does not grow angry and punish
and because he lets folly pass unheeded,
16   Job gives vent to windy nonsense
and makes a parade of empty words.

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