Job 35

Moreover Elihu answered,

“Do you think this to be your right, or do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s,’

that you ask, ‘What advantage will it be to you? What profit will I have, more than if I had sinned?’

I will answer you, and your companions with you.

Look to the skies, and see. See the skies, which are higher than you.

If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him? If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?

If you are righteous, what do you give him? Or what does he receive from your hand?

Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are, and your righteousness may profit a son of man.

“By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.

But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,

who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’

There they cry, but no one answers, because of the pride of evil men.

Surely God will not hear an empty cry, neither will the Almighty regard it.

How much less when you say you don’t see him. The cause is before him, and you wait for him!

But now, because he has not visited in his anger, neither does he greatly regard arrogance,

therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk, and he multiplies words without knowledge.”

Chapter overviewAI-generated

Overview.
This chapter records Elihu’s continuation of his rebuke toward Job, focusing on the folly of questioning God’s justice and demanding accountability from him. Elihu emphasizes God’s transcendence and the irrelevance of human righteousness or sin in affecting God’s being, while condemning Job’s complaints as empty and arrogant speech born of impatience.

Flow.

Elihu challenges Job’s implied claim that his righteousness obligates God, accusing him of suggesting that divine justice is indifferent or flawed (vv. 1–3).
He asserts God’s absolute supremacy, arguing that neither human sin nor righteousness alters God’s nature or governance (vv. 4–8).
Turning to the broader pattern of divine silence, Elihu observes that oppressed people often cry out without acknowledging God as their Maker and Teacher, revealing a deeper spiritual failure (vv. 9–11).
He concludes that God does not hear hollow cries, especially when pride and impatience mark them, and directly applies this to Job’s lengthy speeches as senseless multiplication of words (vv. 12–16).

Connections.
Following chapter 34, where Elihu defends God’s righteousness in judgment and accuses Job of fostering wickedness through his words, this chapter deepens the critique by addressing the theological error in Job’s demand for a hearing: the presumption that God must answer human inquiries according to human timing. Elihu stresses that failure to see God (v. 14) does not invalidate his sovereignty—a theme that anticipates the Lord’s response in chapter 38, where God speaks out of the whirlwind not to defend himself but to reveal the limits of human understanding. In this way, chapter 35 prepares the ground for the climactic divine encounter by dismantling the idea that God is answerable to man, which chapter 40 will resolve in God’s sovereign address.

What it teaches.
God is altogether independent of human actions; he is neither harmed by sin nor benefited by righteousness in a transactional sense (WCF 2.1; LC 8). While human beings are accountable to live righteously, any good they do serves their fellow creatures, not God, who needs nothing (). The chapter underscores that God does not hear petitions offered in pride or impatience, especially when they deny his presence or justice (WCF 17.3; HC LD 12). True piety acknowledges God as Maker and Teacher, even in darkness (HC LD 10), and waits upon him without charging him with injustice (WCF 5.6). Elihu’s argument preserves both divine transcendence and the moral order, warning against treating God as a defendant in a human court.

Apply.
When unanswered questions arise in suffering, the proper response is not to charge God with absence but to trust his unseen governance.

AI-generated. Not a substitute for Scripture, your pastor, or the confessions.