Job 35
What Happens in This Chapter
Elihu keeps speaking to Job. He says Job was wrong to claim he is more right than God, and wrong to ask what good it does to live rightly. Elihu says God is so high above people that our good and bad deeds mostly affect other people, not God. He says God does not answer proud, empty cries, and he ends by saying Job talks without knowing what he is talking about.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
Elihu spake moreover, and said,
1Elihu kept on speaking. He said:
2Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?
2Do you think this is fair? You said, "I am more right than God is."
3For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
3You also asked, "What good does it do me? What do I gain by staying clean of sin?"
4I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.
4I will answer you. I will answer your friends too.
5Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.
5Look up at the sky and see it. Look at the clouds, so far above you.
6If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?
6If you sin, how does that hurt God? If you sin again and again, what does that do to him?
7If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?
7If you do what is right, what have you given God? What does he get from your hand?
8Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.
8The wrong you do hurts other people like you. The right you do helps other people.
9By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty.
9People cry out when they are treated badly. They beg for help from strong, cruel people.
10But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night;
10But no one says, "Where is God, the One who made me? He is the One who gives us songs at night."
11Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?
11"He teaches us more than he teaches the animals. He makes us wiser than the birds in the sky."
12There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men.
12There they cry out, but God does not answer. Evil people are too proud to ask him.
13Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.
13God does not listen to empty words. The Almighty, the all-powerful God, pays them no mind.
The old word here is "vanity." In 1611 that meant something empty, not someone who thinks they are pretty.
14Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him.
14You say you cannot see God. But he already knows your case. So wait for him.
15But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity:
15You also say that God's anger never punishes. You say he hardly notices when people do wrong.
16Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge.
16So Job talks and talks for nothing. He piles up words, but he does not know.
← → to turn the page · P for plain English · click a verse to sit with it