Elihu: what do you give him if you are righteous?
1And Elihu spoke up and said: 2Do you call this justice? You have said, “My right is greater than God’s.” 3For you ask, “What good is it to you? What do I gain more than if I had sinned?” 4I will give you an answer in words, you and your friends with you. 5Look at the sky and see; look at the clouds, so far above you. 6If you sin, what have you done to him? If your rebellions pile up, what does it cost him? 7If you are righteous, what do you give him? What does he take from your hand? 8Your wickedness touches someone like yourself, and your righteousness a son of man.
They cry out, and no one asks where their Maker is
9Under a weight of oppression they cry out; they scream against the arm of the great. 10But no one says, “Where is Eloah, 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 sky?” 12There they cry out, and he does not answer, because of the pride of the wicked. 13It is emptiness: God will not hear it, the Almighty will not look at it. 14Still less when you say you do not see him, that your case is before him and you are waiting for him. 15And now, because his anger has called no one to account and he has taken little notice of arrogance, 16Job opens his mouth on nothing; he piles up words without knowledge.
