1Elihu spoke again, and said,
2"Do you think this is right? You said, 'My righteousness is more than God's.'"
3"For you said, 'What good will it do you?' and, 'What profit will I have, if I am cleansed from my sin?'"
4"I will answer you, and your companions with you."
5"Look up to the heavens, and see. Look at the clouds, which are higher than you."
6"If you sin, what do you do against him? If your wrongs are many, what do you do to him?"
7"If you are righteous, what do you give him? Or what does he receive from your hand?"
8"Your wickedness may hurt a man like yourself, and your righteousness may help a son of man."
9"Because of the many acts of oppression, people make the oppressed cry out. They cry out because of the arm 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 animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?'"
12"There they cry out, but no one gives an answer, because of the pride of evil men."
13"Surely God will not hear empty words, and the Almighty will not take notice of them."
14"Although you say you do not see him, yet judgment is before him; so wait for him."
15"But now, because it is not so, he has punished in his anger; yet he does not take much notice of foolishness."
16"So Job opens his mouth for nothing; he piles up words without knowledge."