² “Do you think this is justice when you say,
‘I am right^[c] before God’?
³ If you ask what it profits you:
‘How do I benefit by refraining from my sin?’^[d]
4 I myself^[e] will give answer to you^[f]
and to your friends with you.
⁵ “Look at the heavens, and see;
and observe the clouds that 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 affects a person like yourself,
and your righteousness affects humans.
⁹ “Because of the multitude of oppressions, they cry out;
they cry for help because of the arm of the mighty.
¹⁰ But^[g] 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 heavens?’
¹² There they cry out, but^[h] he does not answer
because of the pride of evildoers.^[i]
13 “Surely God does not hear an empty plea,
and Shaddai does not regard it.
¹⁴ How much less^[j] when you say that you do not see him,
that the case is before him,^[k] and you are waiting for him!
¹⁵ But^[l] now, because his anger does not punish,
and he does not acknowledge the transgression at all,
¹⁶ therefore^[m] Job opens his mouth in empty talk—
without knowledge he multiplies words.”