² “Do you think this is right,
    that you say, ‘My righteousness is before God’?
³ For you said, ‘What advantage will it be to me?
    What profit will I have if I am cleansed from my sin?’

⁴ “I will answer you,
    and your companions with you.
⁵ Look unto the heavens and see,
    and behold the clouds that are higher than you.
⁶ If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him?
    Or if your transgressions are multiplied, what does it do to Him?
⁷ If you are righteous, what does it give Him?
    Or what does He receive from your hand?
⁸ Your wickedness may hurt a man like you,
    and your righteousness may profit a son of man.

⁹ “Because of the many oppressions they cry out;
    they cry out 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 heaven?’
¹² There they cry out, but He does not answer
    because of the pride of evil men.
¹³ Surely God will not hear vanity,
    nor will the Almighty regard it.
¹⁴ Although you say you do not see Him,
    yet judgment is before Him,
    and you must trust in Him.
¹⁵ But now, because He has not punished in His anger,
    nor taken much notice of folly,
¹⁶ therefore Job opens his mouth in vain;
    he multiplies words without knowledge.”