1Then Elihu continued and said,

     2“Do you think this is according to justice?
            Do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s’?

     3“For you say, ‘What advantage will it be to You?
            What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?’

     4“I will answer you,
            And your friends with you.

     5“Look at the heavens and see;
            And behold the clouds—they are higher than you.

     6“If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against Him?
            And if your transgressions are many, what do you do to Him?

     7“If you are righteous, what do you give to Him?
            Or what does He receive from your hand?

     8“Your wickedness is for a man like yourself,
            And your righteousness is for a son of man.

     9“Because of the multitude of oppressions they cry out;
            They cry for help because of the arm of the mighty.

     10“But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
            Who gives songs in the night,

     11Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth,
            And makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’

     12“There they cry out, but He does not answer
            Because of the pride of evil men.

     13“Surely God will not listen to an empty cry,
            Nor will the Almighty regard it.

     14“How much less when you say you do not behold Him,
            The case is before Him, and you must wait for Him!

     15“And now, because He has not visited in His anger,
            Nor has He acknowledged transgression well,

     16So Job opens his mouth emptily;
            He multiplies words without knowledge.”