Job 35 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Job 35

Elihu Condemns Job

35:1 And Elihu answered and said:

2   “Do you think this to be just?
    Do you say, ‘It is my right before God,’
3   that you ask, ‘What advantage have I?
    How am I better off than if I had sinned?’
4   I will answer you
    and your friends with you.
5   Look at the heavens, and see;
    and behold the clouds, which are higher than you.
6   If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him?
    And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
7   If you are righteous, what do you give to him?
    Or what does he receive from your hand?
8   Your wickedness concerns a man like yourself,
    and your righteousness a son of man.
9   “Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out;
    they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.¹
10   But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
    who gives songs in the night,
11   who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth
    and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’
12   There they cry out, but he does not answer,
    because of the pride of evil men.
13   Surely God does not hear an empty cry,
    nor does the Almighty 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!
15   And now, because his anger does not punish,
    and he does not take much note of transgression,²
16   Job opens his mouth in empty talk;
    he multiplies words without knowledge.”

Footnotes

[1] 35:9 Or the many
[2] 35:15 Theodotion, Symmachus (compare Vulgate); the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain

Commentary

v1-3: See 34.9; the claim that a godly life has no benefit, there is no difference than living a life of blatant sin; yet Scripture is clear that God honours such a life, PS 66.18; Jam 5.16. Elihu appears to misquote Job, and then criticise him.

v4-8: Our righteousness or our wickedness affects men, and events on earth, but it cannot change God. Such thinking makes God into someone without compassion and concern.

Elihu criticises Job and the three friends, the truths he has brought, he claims, are far above them.

v9-11: Elihu recognises that the normal human attitude is to reject God; for even the unbeliever is different from animals.

v12: People then wonder that God does not answer. People seem to regard God as their servant, ready to respond to their every whim, whatever their attitude to Him.

v13: Men's empty talk, words without knowledge and meaning, does not impress God.

v14-15: Elihu says that Job's prayers are ignored by God, and that for the reasons he has stated, that God has turned away from him, and that God ignores all wrong doing.

v16: The accusation against Job is built up; he multiplies words without knowledge.