1 Then Elihu answered and said:
2 Do you think it right to say,“I am in the right, not God”?
3 When you ask what it profits you,“What advantage do I have from not sinning?”
4 I have words for a reply to youand your friends as well.
5 Look up to the skies and see;behold the heavens high above you.
6 If you sin, what do you do to God?Even if your offenses are many, how do you affect him?
7 If you are righteous, what do you give him,or what does he receive from your hand?
8 Your wickedness affects only someone like yourself,and your justice, only a fellow human being.
9 In great oppression people cry out;they call for help because of the power of the great,
10 No one says, “Where is God, my Maker,who gives songs in the night,
11 Teaches us more than the beasts of the earth,and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?”
12 Though thus they cry out, he does not answerbecause of the pride of the wicked.
13 But it is idle to say God does not hearor that the Almighty does not take notice.
14 Even though you say, “You take no notice of it,”the case is before him; with trembling wait upon him.
15 But now that you have done otherwise, God’s anger punishes,nor does he show much concern over a life.
16 Yet Job to no purpose opens his mouth,multiplying words without knowledge.