Job 35:2-8

2 “Do you think this is just? You say, ‘I am in the right, not God.’

3 Yet you ask him, ‘What profit is it to me,^[a]and what do I gain by not sinning?’

4 “I would like to reply to you and to your friends with you.

5 Look up at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds so high above you.

6 If you sin, how does that affect him? If your sins are many, what does that do to him?

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

8 Your wickedness only affects humans like yourself, and your righteousness only other people.

Job 35:2-8 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.

Cross References

• 1. S Job 33:32
• 2. S Job 2:9; S Job 32:2
• 3. S Job 9:29-31; S Job 21:15; Job 34:9
• 4. S Genesis 15:5; S Deuteronomy 10:14
• 5. S Job 11:7-9; Psalms 19:1-4; Job 22:12
• 6. S Job 7:20; Proverbs 8:36
• 7. Romans 11:35
• 8. 1 Corinthians 4:7; Proverbs 9:12
• 9. S Job 22:2-3; Luke 17:10
• 10. Ezekiel 18:24
• 11. Ezekiel 18:5-9; Zechariah 7:9-10

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "you"