Job 35:5-15

5 ¹Look at the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds, which are higher than you.

6 If you have sinned, ²what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?

7 ³If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand?

8 Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself, and your righteousness ⁴a son of man.

9 "Because of the multitude of ⁵oppressions people ⁶cry out; they call for help because of the arm of ⁷the mighty.^[a]

10 But none says, 'Where is God my ⁸Maker, who gives ⁹songs in the night,

11 who teaches us ¹⁰more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?'

12 There they ¹¹cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evil men.

13 Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it.

14 How much less when you say that you ¹²do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are ¹³waiting for him!

15 And now, because ¹⁴his anger does not punish, and he does not take much note of transgression,^[b]

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Job 35:5-15 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 35

Is this chapter Elihu goes on to charge Job with other unbecoming speeches, which he undertakes to refute; as that he had represented his cause more just than God's, and religion and righteousness as things unprofitable to men, only to God; to which Elihu takes upon him to make answer, Job 35:1-8; and that the cries of the oppressed were not heard by the Lord, so as to give occasion to songs of praise and thankfulness, to which he replies, Job 35:9-13; and that Job had expressed diffidence and despair of ever seeing and enjoying the favour of God, which he endeavours to remove, Job 35:14-16.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 14

1. [Job 22:12]
2. Proverbs 8:36; Jeremiah 7:19
3. Job 22:2, 3; Proverbs 9:12; Luke 17:10; [Job 41:11; Romans 11:35]
4. Job 25:6
5. Amos 3:9
6. Exodus 2:23; [Job 34:28]
7. [Job 22:8]
8. Job 4:17; Deuteronomy 32:6
9. Psalms 42:8; Psalms 77:6; Psalms 149:5; [Acts 16:25]
10. Job 36:22; Psalms 94:12; Isaiah 28:26
11. See Job 27:9
12. Job 9:11; Job 23:8, 9
13. [Job 13:15]
14. Numbers 16:29; Psalms 89:32

Footnotes 2

[a]. Or the many
[b]. Theodotion, Symmachus (compare Vulgate); the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.