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.^[a]
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,^[b]
16 Job opens his mouth in empty talk;
    he multiplies words without knowledge.”