2“Do you think this to be just?
Do you say, ‘It is my right before God,’
3that 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;
and behold 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 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
10But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
who gives songs in the night,
11who teaches us more than the beasts 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 evil men.
13Surely God does not hear an empty cry,
nor does the Almighty 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 take much note of transgression,^b
16Job opens his mouth in empty talk;
he multiplies words without knowledge.”