Job 35
16 verses
Elihu asserts that Job has asked whether righteousness profits him or whether sin harms him, suggesting that this question reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship between human conduct and divine response. Elihu proposes that human righteousness or wickedness affects other humans but does not truly affect God, who is beyond reach of human morality; therefore, the expectation that God will respond to human conduct is itself misguided. He notes that people often cry out in distress but fail to credit God with the strength and teaching they receive, and he suggests that those who suffer without humility will not receive answer from God. Elihu's argument that human morality does not directly affect God is theologically sophisticated, but it undercuts the very basis for believing that God is just, since if human conduct does not affect God, then God's treatment of humans cannot be understood as responsive to their moral status. This chapter reveals the internal contradictions in Elihu's attempt to defend divine justice while maintaining divine transcendence.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
1
Elihu spake moreover, and said,
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2
Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?
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3
For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
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4
I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.
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5
Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.
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6
If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?
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7
If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?
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8
Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.
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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.
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10
But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night;
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11
Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?
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12
There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men.
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13
Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.
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14
Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him.
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15
But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity:
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16
Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge.
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