¹Moreover Elihu answered, ²“Do you think this to be your right, or do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s,’ ³that you ask, ‘What advantage will it be to you? What profit will I have, more than if I had sinned?’ ⁴I will answer you, and your companions with you. ⁵Look to the skies, and see. See the skies, which are higher than you. ⁶If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him? If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? ⁷If you are righteous, what do you give him? Or what does he receive from your hand? ⁸Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are, and your righteousness may profit a son of man. ⁹“By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty. ¹⁰But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, ¹¹who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’ ¹²There they cry, but no one answers, because of the pride of evil men. ¹³Surely God will not hear an empty cry, neither will the Almighty regard it. ¹⁴How much less when you say you don’t see him. The cause is before him, and you wait for him! ¹⁵But now, because he has not visited in his anger, neither does he greatly regard arrogance, ¹⁶therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk, and he multiplies words without knowledge.”