² “Do you think this to be just?
    You say, ‘I am in the right before God.’^(A)
3 If you ask, ‘What advantage have I?
    How am I better off than if I had sinned?’^(B)
4 I will answer you
    and your friends with you.
⁵ Look at the heavens and see;
    observe the clouds, which are higher than you.^(C)
6 If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him?
    And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?^(D)
7 If you are righteous, what do you give to him,
    or what does he receive from your hand?^(E)
8 Your wickedness affects others like you,
    and your righteousness, other human beings.

⁹ “Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out;
    they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.^(F)
10 But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
    who gives strength in the night,^(G)
11 who teaches us more than the animals of the earth
    and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’^(H)
12 There they cry out, but he does not answer,
    because of the pride of evildoers.^(I)
13 Surely God does not hear an empty cry,
    nor does the Almighty^[a] regard it.^(J)
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!^(K)
15 And now, because his anger does not punish
    and he does not greatly heed transgression,^[b](L)
16 Job opens his mouth in empty talk;
    he multiplies words without knowledge.”^(M)