Job 35

Sin’s impact

1 Elihu continued:
2 Do you think it right? You say, "I'm more just than God."
3 Yet you ask, "What does it benefit you? What have I gained by avoiding sin?"
4 I'll answer you, and your friends along with you.
5 Look at the heavens and see; scan the clouds high over you.
6 If you've sinned, how have you affected God? Your offenses have multiplied; what have you done to him?
7 If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand?
8 Your evil affects others like you, and your righteousness affects fellow human beings.
9 People cry out because of heavy oppression; shout under the power 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, makes us wiser than the birds in the sky?"
12 Then they cry out; but he doesn't answer, because of the pride of the wicked.
13 God certainly doesn't respond to a deceitful cry; the Almighty doesn't pay attention to it.
14 Although you say that you don't see him, the case is before him; so wait anxiously for him.
15 Even though his anger is now held back, a person doesn't know it's only delayed.
16 So Job mouths emptiness; he piles up ignorant words.

Footnotes 1

Job 35 Commentaries

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