Job 35
EasyEnglish Bible
Elihu continues to speak[a]
35 Elihu continued to speak to Job. This is what he said:
2 ‘The things that you say cannot be true.
You say, “I am more right than God is.”
3 But you also say, “If I do nothing wrong,
God does not bless me.
No good thing comes to me.”
4 Now I will give you an answer.
I will also speak to the friends who are with you.
5 Look up at the sky to see what is there.
Look at the clouds that are so high above you.
6 If you do something that is wrong,
it does not hurt God.
Even if you do many wrong things,
it does nothing to him.
7 If you are righteous,
that does nothing to help God.
He does not receive anything that he needs from you.
8 If you do wicked things,
it is other people who suffer, not God.
And if you do good things,
you are only helping other people.
9 When people suffer,
they call aloud for help.
They cry for help
when powerful people attack them.
10 But none of them says, “I want God to help me.
He made me. He gives me songs to sing in dark nights.
11 God teaches us more things than he teaches to the animals.
He makes us wiser than the birds.”
12 Finally, they call for help.
But God does not answer them,
because they are proud and wicked people.
13 Their prayers mean nothing.
Almighty God does not even listen to them.
14 So God will certainly not listen to you, Job,
when you say that you cannot see him.
You say that you have explained your problem to him.
You are waiting for him to give you an answer.
15 You also say that God does not become angry
with people who do wrong things.
You say that he does not punish bad people.
16 So, Job, you do not understand what you are saying.
You speak a lot of words
but they do not mean anything.’
Footnotes
- 35:1 Job has asked why he should live the right way. Elihu answers him now. Job may do good things or bad things. It does not matter to God, Elihu says (verses 1 to 8). Job has also asked why God does not answer his prayers. Elihu answers this, too. Job may have done wrong things, so God does not answer his prayers (verse 12). Or Job may not believe that God answers people's prayers (verse 13). None of these answers helps Job.
Job 35
King James Version
35 Elihu spake moreover, and said,
2 Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God's?
3 For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
4 I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.
5 Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.
6 If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?
7 If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?
8 Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.
9 By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty.
10 But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night;
11 Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?
12 There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men.
13 Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.
14 Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him.
15 But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity:
16 Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge.
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