[1] And Elihu answered and said:
[2] “Do you think this to be just? Do you say, ‘It is my right before God,’
[3] “that you ask, ‘What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?’
[4] “I will answer you and your friends with you.
[5] “Look at the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds, which are higher than you.
[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 righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand?
[8] “Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself, and your righteousness a son of man.
[9] “Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out; they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.
[10] “But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,
[11] “‘who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’
[12] “There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evil men.
[13] “Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it.
[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] “And now, because his anger does not punish, and he does not take much note of transgression,
[16] “Job opens his mouth in empty talk; he multiplies words without knowledge.”