| English Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1And Elihu answered and said: | 1Then Elihu said: |
| 2“Do you think this to be just? Do you say, ‘It is my right before God,’ | 2“Do you think it is right for you to claim, ‘I am righteous before God’? |
| 3that you ask, ‘What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?’ | 3For you also ask, ‘What’s in it for me? What’s the use of living a righteous life?’ |
| 4I will answer you and your friends with you. | 4“I will answer you and all your friends, too. |
| 5Look at the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds, which are higher than you. | 5Look up into the sky, and see the clouds high above you. |
| 6If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? | 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 righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand? | 7If you are good, is this some great gift to him? What could you possibly give him? |
| 8Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself, and your righteousness a son of man. | 8No, your sins affect only people like yourself, and your good deeds also affect only humans. |
| 9“Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out; they call for help because of the arm of the mighty. | 9“People cry out when they are oppressed. They groan beneath the power of the mighty. |
| 10But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, | 10Yet they don’t ask, ‘Where is God my Creator, the one 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?’ | 11Where is the one who makes us smarter than the animals and wiser than the birds of the sky?’ |
| 12There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evil men. | 12And when they cry out, God does not answer because of their pride. |
| 13Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it. | 13But it is wrong to say God doesn’t listen, to say the Almighty isn’t concerned. |
| 14How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him! | 14You say you can’t see him, but he will bring justice if you will only wait. |
| 15And now, because his anger does not punish, and he does not take much note of transgression, | 15You say he does not respond to sinners with anger and is not greatly concerned about wickedness. |
| 16Job opens his mouth in empty talk; he multiplies words without knowledge.” | 16But you are talking nonsense, Job. You have spoken like a fool.” |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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