1And Elihu went on to say:
2“Do you think this is just? You say, ‘I am more righteous than God.’
3For you ask, ‘What does it profit me, and what benefit do I gain apart from sin?’
4I will reply to you and to your friends as well.
5Look to the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds high above you.
6If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? If you multiply your transgressions, 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 affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only a son of man.
9Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.
10But no one asks, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives us songs in the night,
11who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’
12There they cry out, but He does not answer, because of the pride of evil men.
13Surely God does not listen to empty pleas, and the Almighty does not take note of it.
14How much less, then, when you say that you do not see Him, that your case is before Him and you must wait for Him,
15and further, that in His anger He has not punished or taken much notice of folly!
16So Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge.”
Understand This
Job 35, explained
What Job 35 is saying
Elihu argues that human righteousness or wickedness does not affect God—they only affect other humans. He then addresses the problem of unanswered prayer: the oppressed cry out but receive no answer because their cries lack genuine faith, being reflexive rather than truly directed to God their Maker. He accuses Job of speaking without knowledge.
The background behind it
Elihu's theology of divine impassibility—God is unaffected by human virtue or vice—represents a philosophical position that would develop significantly in later Jewish and Christian theology. His distinction between instinctive cries of pain and genuine prayer directed to God reflects wisdom tradition concerns about the quality of worship.
Themes running underneath
Elihu raises an important point about divine transcendence: God's justice is not motivated by self-interest, since human behavior cannot benefit or harm Him. However, this argument cuts both ways—if God is unaffected by human suffering, why should He respond at all? The chapter inadvertently strengthens Job's complaint about divine indifference.
Why it still matters
The distinction between crying out in pain and crying out to God in faith, while potentially valid, is dangerous when applied to someone in extremis. Not every cry needs to meet a theological standard to deserve a divine response.
Scripture text: Berean Standard Bible — used by permission, Bible Hub.