¹Moreover, Elihu ⌞spoke up⌟ and said, ²“Do you think this is justice when you say, ‘⌞I am right⌟ before God’? ³If you ask what it profits you: ‘How do I benefit ⌞by refraining from my sin⌟?’ ⁴I myself ⌞will give answer to you⌟ and to your friends with you. ⁵“Look at the heavens, and see; and observe the clouds that are higher than you. ⁶If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? ⁷If you are righteous, what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand? ⁸Your wickedness affects a person like yourself, and your righteousness affects humans. ⁹“Because of the multitude of oppressions, they cry out; they cry for help because 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 heavens?’ ¹²There they cry out, but he does not answer ⌞because of the pride of evildoers⌟. ¹³“Surely God does not hear an empty plea, and Shaddai does not regard it. ¹⁴⌞How much less⌟ when you say that you do not see him, that the case is ⌞before him⌟, and you are waiting for him! ¹⁵But now, because his anger does not punish, and he does not acknowledge the transgression at all, ¹⁶⌞therefore⌟ Job opens his mouth in empty talk— without knowledge he multiplies words.”