Job 35

What does God gain from you

Then Elihu said: ²“Do you think it is right for you to claim, ‘I am righteous before God’? ³For you also ask, ‘What’s in it for me? What’s the use of living a righteous life?’ ⁴“I will answer you and all your friends, too.

⁵Look up into the sky, and see the clouds high above you. ⁶If you sin, how does that affect God? Even if you sin again and again, what effect will it have on him? ⁷If you are good, is this some great gift to him? What could you possibly give him?

⁸No, your sins affect only people like yourself, and your good deeds also affect only humans. ⁹“People cry out when they are oppressed. They groan beneath the power of the mighty. ¹⁰Yet they don’t ask, ‘Where is God my Creator, the one who gives songs in the night?

¹¹Where is the one who makes us smarter than the animals and wiser than the birds of the sky?’ ¹²And when they cry out, God does not answer because of their pride. ¹³But it is wrong to say God doesn’t listen, to say the Almighty isn’t concerned.

¹⁴You say you can’t see him, but he will bring justice if you will only wait. ¹⁵You say he does not respond to sinners with anger and is not greatly concerned about wickedness. ¹⁶But you are talking nonsense, Job. You have spoken like a fool.”