² “Do you think this to be your right,
    or do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s,’
³ that you ask, ‘What advantage will it be to you?
    What profit will I have, more than if I had sinned?’
⁴ I will answer you,
    and your companions with you.
⁵ Look to the skies, and see.
    See the skies, which are higher than you.
⁶ If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him?
    If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
⁷ If you are righteous, what do you give him?
    Or what does he receive from your hand?
⁸ Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are,
    and your righteousness may profit a son of man.

⁹ “By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out.
    They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.
¹⁰ But 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 sky?’
¹² There they cry, but no one answers,
    because of the pride of evil men.
¹³ Surely God will not hear an empty cry,
    neither will the Almighty regard it.
¹⁴ How much less when you say you don’t see him.
    The cause is before him, and you wait for him!
¹⁵ But now, because he has not visited in his anger,
    neither does he greatly regard arrogance,
¹⁶ therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk,
    and he multiplies words without knowledge.”