Sin’s impact
1 Elihu continued:
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Do you think it right? You say, "I'm more just than God."
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Yet you ask, "What does it benefit you? What have I gained by avoiding sin?"
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I'll answer you, and your friends along with you.
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Look at the heavens and see; scan the clouds high over you.
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If you've sinned, how have you affected God? Your offenses have multiplied; what have you done to him?
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If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand?
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Your evil affects others like you, and your righteousness affects fellow human beings.
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People cry out because of heavy oppression; shout under the power of the mighty.
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But no one says, "Where is God my maker; who gives songs in the night;
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who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, makes us wiser than the birds in the sky?"
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Then they cry out; but he doesn't answer, because of the pride of the wicked.
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God certainly doesn't respond to a deceitful cry; the Almighty doesn't pay attention to it.
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Although you say that you don't see him, the case is before him; so wait anxiously for him.
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Even though his anger is now held back, a person doesn't know it's only delayed.
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So Job mouths emptiness; he piles up ignorant words.