2“Do you think this to be just?

You say, ‘I am in the right before God.’*

3If you ask, ‘What advantage have I?

How am I better off than if I had sinned?’*

4I will answer you

and your friends with you.

5Look at the heavens and see;

observe the clouds, which 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 others like you,

and your righteousness, other human beings.

9“Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out;

they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.*

10But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,

who gives strength in the night,*

11who teaches us more than the animals 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 evildoers.*

13Surely God does not hear an empty cry,

nor does the Almightyw regard it.*

14How much less when you say that you do not see him,

that the case is before him and you are waiting for him!*

15And now, because his anger does not punish

and he does not greatly heed transgression,x^,*

16Job opens his mouth in empty talk;

he multiplies words without knowledge.”*