^1. Then Elihu said:

^2. "Do you think this is just? You say, `I will be cleared by God. [1] '

^3. Yet you ask him, `What profit is it to me, [2] and what do I gain by not sinning?'

^4. "I would like to reply to you and to your friends with you.

^5. Look up at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds so high above you.

^6. If you sin, how does that affect him? If your sins are many, what does that do to him?

^7. If you are righteous, what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand?

^8. Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only the sons of men.

^9. "Men cry out under a load of oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the powerful.

^10. But no one says, `Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,

^11. who teaches more to us than to [4] the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than [3] the birds of the air?'

^12. He does not answer when men cry out because of the arrogance of the wicked.

^13. Indeed, God does not listen to their empty plea; the Almighty pays no attention to it.

^14. How much less, then, will he listen when you say that you do not see him, that your case is before him and you must wait for him,

^15. and further, that his anger never punishes and he does not take the least notice of wickedness. [5]

^16. So Job opens his mouth with empty talk; without knowledge he multiplies words."