Job 35:3-13

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.

9 “People cry out under a load of oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the powerful.

10 But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,

11 who teaches us more than he teaches^[b] the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than^[c] the birds in the sky?’

12 He does not answer when people cry out because of the arrogance of the wicked.

13 Indeed, God does not listen to their empty plea; the Almighty pays no attention to it.

Job 35:3-13 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 9:29-31; S Job 21:15; Job 34:9
• 2. S Genesis 15:5; S Deuteronomy 10:14
• 3. S Job 11:7-9; Psalms 19:1-4; Job 22:12
• 4. S Job 7:20; Proverbs 8:36
• 5. Romans 11:35
• 6. 1 Corinthians 4:7; Proverbs 9:12
• 7. S Job 22:2-3; Luke 17:10
• 8. Ezekiel 18:24
• 9. Ezekiel 18:5-9; Zechariah 7:9-10
• 10. Exodus 2:23
• 11. S Job 20:19
• 12. S Job 5:15; S Job 12:19
• 13. S Job 4:17; Job 27:10; Isaiah 51:13
• 14. S Job 8:21
• 15. Psalms 42:8; Psalms 77:6; Psalms 119:62; Psalms 149:5; Acts 16:25
• 16. S Job 21:22; Luke 12:24; Psalms 94:12
• 17. Job 12:7
• 18. S 1 Samuel 8:18; Proverbs 1:28
• 19. S Job 15:25
• 20. Psalms 66:18
• 21. S Deuteronomy 1:45; S 1 Samuel 8:18; S Job 15:31; S Proverbs 15:8; Job 27:9; Proverbs 15:29; Isaiah 1:15; Jeremiah 11:11

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "you"
• [b]. Or "night," / 11"who teaches us by"
• [c]. Or "us wise by"