1. Then Elihu said:
2. “Do you think this is fair?You say, ‘God will show that I am right,’
3. but you also ask, ‘What’s the use?I don’t gain anything by not sinning.’
4. “I will answer youand your friends who are with you.
5. Look up at the skyand see the clouds so high above you.
6. If you sin, it does nothing to God;even if your sins are many, they do nothing to him.
7. If you are good, you give nothing to God;he receives nothing from your hand.
8. Your evil ways only hurt others like yourself,and the good you do only helps other human beings.
9. “People cry out when they are in trouble;they beg for relief from powerful people.
10. But no one asks, ‘Where is God, my Maker,who gives us songs in the night,
11. who makes us smarter than the animals of the earthand wiser than the birds of the air?’
12. God does not answer evil people when they cry out,because the wicked are proud.
13. God does not listen to their useless begging;the Almighty pays no attention to them.
14. He will listen to you even lesswhen you say that you do not see him,that your case is before him,that you must wait for him,
15. that his anger never punishes,and that he doesn’t notice evil.
16. So Job is only speaking nonsense,saying many words without knowing what is true.”