Job 35

35 ¹ Then Elihu continued and said: ² "Do you think this is just? You say, 'My righteousness is more than God's.' ³ For you ask, 'What good does it do you? What do I gain by not sinning?' ⁴ I will answer you, and your friends along with you. ⁵ Look up at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds, which are higher than you. ⁶ If you sin, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are many, what do you do to him? ⁷ If you are righteous, what do you give him? Or what does he receive from your hand? ⁸ Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only a fellow human. ⁹ People cry out under the weight of many oppressions; they call for help against the arm of the mighty. ¹⁰ But no one says, 'Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, ¹¹ who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?' ¹² There they cry out, but he gives no answer, because of the pride of evil men. ¹³ Surely God does not listen to an empty cry; the Almighty pays it no attention. ¹⁴ How much less, then, will he answer when you say you do not see him — though your case is before him and you must wait for him. ¹⁵ And now, because his anger has not yet punished, and he has taken little notice of folly, ¹⁶ Job opens his mouth with empty talk; he multiplies words without knowledge."