35 Then Elihu continued:
2 Do you really think it is right when you say,
“My righteousness is greater than God’s”?[a]
3 You even say, “What use will this be to me?
How will it profit me more than if I sinned?”
4 But I will respond to your words—and to your friends with you!
5 Look at the heavens and you will see.
Take a good look at the clouds.
They are high above you!
6 If you have sinned, how does that affect God?
If your rebellious deeds are many, what harm can you do to him?
7 If you are righteous, what are you giving to him?
What does he receive from your hand?
8 Your wickedness only affects a man like you,
and your righteousness only impacts other people.
9 They cry out because of severe oppression.
They scream for relief from the arm of the powerful.
10 But no one asks, “Where is God my Maker,
who provides songs in the night,
11 who teaches us more than the wild animals on the earth,
who makes us wiser than the birds in the sky?”
12 Then the wicked cry out, but he does not answer,
because of their arrogant pride.[b]
13 Certainly God will not listen to an insincere[c] cry,
and the Almighty will not pay attention to it.
14 How much less when you say
that you do not see him,
that your case has been presented to him,
and that you are waiting for him!
15 Besides that, you say that his anger has not demanded an accounting,
and that he does not fully understand sin.[d]
16 Job opens his mouth pointlessly,
and he heaps up words without knowledge.