1 Then Elihu continued, saying:
2 Do you think it is just when you say,
“I am righteous before God”?
3 For you ask, “What does it profit you,
and what benefit comes to me, if I do not sin? ” o
4 I will answer you
and your friends with you.
5 Look at the heavens and see;
gaze at the clouds high above you.
6 If you sin, how does it affect God?
If you multiply your transgressions, what does it do to him?
7 If you are righteous, what do you give him,
or what does he receive from your hand? p
8 Your wickedness affects a person like yourself,
and your righteousness, a son of man.
9 People cry out because of severe oppression;
they shout for help because of the power of the mighty. q
10 But no one asks, “Where is God my Maker, r
who provides us with songs in the night, s
11 who gives us more understanding than the animals of the earth
and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky? ” t
12 There they cry out, but he does not answer,
because of the pride of evil people. u
13 Indeed, God does not listen to empty cries,
and the Almighty does not take note of it—
14 how much less when you complain
that you do not see him,
that your case v is before him
and you are waiting w for him.
15 But now, because God’s anger does not punish
and he does not pay attention to transgression,
16 Job opens his mouth in vain
and multiplies words without knowledge. x
35:1–4. In his third speech (chap. 35) Elihu attempts to summarize Job’s claims and then counters them. He exaggerates Job’s anguished words (e.g., 7:17–21) into a view of God as unaffected by human actions and declares that Job has no grounds for his case against God. Elihu construes Job as saying that he is more righteous than God but that his righteousness brings him no profit (35:2–3). It is true that Job said that he is innocent (10:7; 27:5), but Elihu here puts words into Job’s mouth. Job actually said that it is the wicked who complain that serving God brings them no gain (21:15), although in 9:21–23 he did perceive God as treating the innocent and the wicked identically.
35:5–8. Directing attention to the heavens (35:5), Elihu portrays God as so absolutely transcendent that there is a vast and impassable chasm between God and humans. This leads Elihu to agree with Eliphaz’s words (22:2–3) that God is so high that his governing of the world is unaffected by human sin or human righteousness (35:6–7). Elihu declares that human actions are significant only within the human sphere (35:8). Only humans suffer from oppression by other people, and only humans benefit from the goodness of others. From God’s lofty perspective, what humans do is negligible.
35:9–16. Elihu is skeptical about human appeals to God because they smack of self-interest. He argues that those who cry to God for relief (35:9) should submit themselves to God’s teaching (35:10–11), so that they can learn his wisdom. In Elihu’s thinking, all humans are sinful, so God does not listen to their cries (35:12–13). If this were the whole story, however, it would destroy any possibility of relationship between God and humans and would reduce God to thorough predictability.