Job 35

NEW JERUSALEM	Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
1 Elihu continued his speech. He said:	1 And Elihu said:
2 Do you think you can prove yourself upright and establish your uprightness before God	2 "Do you think this to be just? Do you say, 'It is my right before God,'
3 by daring to say to him, 'What does it matter to you, or how does it benefit me, whether I have sinnedor not?'	3 that you ask, 'What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?'
4 Very well, I shal tel you and your friends as wel .	4 I will answer you and your friends with you.
5 Take a look at the skies and see, observe how high the clouds are above you.	5 Look at the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds, which are higher than you.
6 If you sin, how can you affect him? If you heap up crimes, what effect has it on him?	6 If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
7 If you are upright, what do you give him, what benefit does he receive at your hands?	7 If you are righteous, what do you give to him; or what does he receive from your hand?
8 Your wickedness affects only your fel ows, your uprightness, other human beings.	8 Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself, and your righteousness a son of man.
9 They too groan under the weight of oppression, they cry for help under the tyranny of the mighty,	9 "Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out; they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.
10 but none of them thinks of saying, 'Where is God, my Maker, who makes glad songs ring out at night,	10 But none says, 'Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,
11 who has made us more intel igent than wild animals wiser than birds in the sky?'	11 who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?'
12 Cry they may, but get no answer, to be spared from the arrogance of the wicked.	12 There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evil men.
13 Of course God does not listen to trivialities, Shaddai pays no attention to them.	13 Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it.
14 And how much less when you say, 'I cannot see him, my case is open and I am waiting for him.'	14 How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!
15 Or, 'His anger never punishes, he does not seem aware of human rebel ion.'	15 And now, because his anger does not punish, and he does not greatly heed transgression,
16 Hence, when Job speaks, he talks nonsense, ignorantly babbling on and on.	16 Job opens his mouth in empty talk, he multiplies words without knowledge."