Job 35

TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION

1-2 It is not right, Job, for you to say that you are innocent in God’s sight,

3 or to ask God, How does my sin affect you?

It has done me no good not to sin.

4 I am going to answer you and your friends too. 5 Look at the sky! See how high the clouds are! 6 If you sin, that does no harm to God.

If you do many wrongs, does that affect him?

7 Do you help God by being so righteous?

There is nothing God needs from you.

8 It is your fellow-men who suffer from your sins,

and the good you do helps them.

9 When men are oppressed they groan;

they cry for someone to save them.

10 But they don-’t turn to God, their Creator,

who gives them strength in their darkest hours.

11 They don-’t turn to God, who makes us wise,

wiser than any animal or bird.

12 They cry for help, but God doesn-’t answer,

because they are proud and evil men.

13 It is useless for them to cry out;

Almighty God does not see or hear them.

14 Job, you say you can-’t see God,

but wait patientlyyour case is before him.

15 You think that God does not punish,

that he pays no attention to sin.

16 It is useless for you to go on talking;

it is clear you don-’t know what you are saying.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 35:1-16

What assertion of Job is answered by Elihu in this chapter? Is this position of Elihu popular today?

Job is supposed to have said that he was more righteous than God. What did he really say?

Job never said he had not sinned. What did Job say about his sinning?

How does Elihu show a consistent arrogance?

How does Elihu interpret God’s transcendence? How did Job interpret this quality of God?

Job had already answered the argument of verse seven. Cf. Job 7:20. What was it?

What is meant by saying, God’s self-interest is not the basis of His decisions in distributing His justice?

Elihu makes one quality of God’s nature contradict another quality. Show how this is so.

How do you answer Job’s question: If God’s rule is righteous, why the cry of the oppressed?

God does give songs in the night. Cite three examples.

God can and does instruct us above and better than the animals. How? Why?

If one is not heard and answered by God, it is because of what? I. e., what is the problem?

We must be pious or our cry will not be heardso says Elihu. Is he right? Discuss.

Elihu feels Job has less chance with God than other men. Why?

Explain in your own words Job 35:15.

Someone has multiplied words without knowledge, but it was not Job. Who was so involved?

Job 35:1-3

D.

THE ACTS OF GOD AND THE ACTS OF MAN (Job 35:1-16)

1. Job has said he has seen no profit in righteousness. (Job 35:1-3)

TEXT 35:1-3

**1 Moreover Elihu answered and said,

2 Thinkest thou this to be **thy **right,

Or sayest thou, My righteousness is more than God’S,

3 That thou sayest, What advantage will it be onto thee?**

And, What profit shall I have more than if I had sinned?

COMMENT 35:1-3

**Job 35:1**Elihu proceeds to respond to Job’s assertion that piety in no way affects God, but that both sin and piety affect only man. This speech is composed of two parts: (1) Elihu seeks to refute Job’s claim that the pious person is not rewarded by propertyJob 35:2-8; and (2) when the cry of the afflicted is not heard by God, they have not responded to the lesson intended by the discipline of sufferingJob 35:9-16. Elihu first defines the position of Job, then points to the greatness of God, who can neither be positively or negatively affected by anything man does. Man alone is affected by his own behavior.

**Job 35:2**The antecedent of this refers to what follows in verse three. Elihu is quoting Job’s claim that he is in the right, or righteous. But Job has never claimed that he is more righteous than God; rather he has consistently asserted that he is innocent in the presence of GodJob 4:17; Job 13:18; Job 19:6-7; and Job 27:2-6.

**Job 35:3**How am I profited from my sin? Job has never denied that he has sinned (Heb. means more than if I had sinned), but not serious enough to deserve the unbearable suffering which has fallen upon himJob 32:2. Elihu could not admit that Job had correctly evaluated his spiritual condition, as that would impugn the justice of God. Job often seems to imply that it would not make any difference whether he had sinned or not, since justice seems to be abortive in the universe; i.e., the universe is amoralJob 34:9. It is doubtful that the pronoun thee in the A. V. refers to God; perhaps it is best taken as a taunt hurled at another one of Job’s antagonists.

Job 35:4-8

2. Man’s actions, good or bad, do not help nor hurt God; they do affect men. (Job 35:4-8)

TEXT 35:4-8

**4 I will answer thee,

And thy companions with thee.

5 Look unto the heavens, and see;

And behold the skies, which are higher than thou.

6 If thou hast sinned, what effectest thou against him?

And if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?

7 If thou be righteous, what givest thou him?

Or what receiveth he of thy hand?

8 Thy wickedness **may hurt **a man as thou art;

And thy righteousness **may profit **a son **of man.

COMMENT 35:4-8

**Job 35:4**Elihu here addresses all who have sympathy for Job’s positionJob 34:2-4, Job 10:15. The personal pronoun I is emphatic, which agrees completely with Elihu’s consistent arrogance.

**Job 35:5**His words here must be contrasted with Job’s thoughts on God’s transcendenceJob 9:8-11; Job 11:7-9; Job 22:12. Job has always maintained that God controlled the heavensJob 9:8 ff. But here the thought is that God is so far removed from us that He is beyond man’s reach. God is neither benefited by our righteousness nor harmed by our sin.

**Job 35:6**Eliphaz had set forth this same argument in Job 22:2 ff. But Job had already set forth his position in Job 7:20.

**Job 35:7**God’s self-interest is not the basis of His decisions in distributing His justiceLuk 17:10; Romans 11:35.

**Job 35:8**Eliphaz had said that a man’s righteousness only profited himself. Elihu more perceptively exalts God’s greatness at the expense of His grace; His transcendence at the price of His immanencePro 9:12.

Job 35:9-13

3. Pride will keep men from God. (Job 35:9-13)

TEXT 35:9-13

**9 By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out;

They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.

10 But none saith, Where is God my Maker,

Who giveth songs in the night,

11 Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth,

And maketh us wiser than the birds of the heavens?

12 There they cry, but none giveth answer,

Because of the pride of evil men.

13 Surely God will not hear an empty **cry,

Neither will the Almighty regard it.

COMMENT 35:9-13

**Job 35:9**Job has expressed his attitude toward the magnitude of human misery and injustice in Job 24:2-17 and there noted that God does not respond to the social injustices caused by unrighteous men in Job 24:12. Job had already raised the question, If God’s rule is righteous, why the cry of the oppressed? in Job 24:12. The phrase multitude of oppressions means the excess of oppression and comes from the root for youth or virginityAmo 3:9; Ecclesiastes 4:1. The arm is an image or instrument of oppression.

**Job 35:10**A righteous God gives songs in the night even to the oppressedPsa 42:8; Acts 16:25. The scriptures bear witness that God grants songs in the night to the oppressedPsalms 137; Psalms 150:1; Psalms 150:5. The Jews, in Fiddler on the Roof, sang Psalms 137 asking, How does one sing songs in a strange land? In the birth record of Job’s redeemer we are given Mary’s song, Luke 1:46-56; Zechariah’s song, Luke 1:68-79; the angels-’ song, Luke 2:14; and Simeon’s song, Luke 2:29-35. Each of these were songs from a weary world, as were those of Moses and Hannah in the Old Testament. The word zemirot is usually rendered songs but can mean strength.[348]

[348] See Pope, Job, pp. 263-264; and The Qumran Targum rendering of pour notre Plantation dans la nuit, and IQS VIII, 5, 10; Isaiah 61:3.

**Job 35:11**God teaches us (mallepenu) continually because man has a higher intelligence and wisdom than animals. He communicates to man with continuous instruction. The preposition -min is usually interpreted as the comparative, i.e., more than, implying that man derives wisdom from the observation of the natural world. This is a common theme in Wisdom Literature1 Kings 4:33; Proverbs 6:6; Proverbs 26:2; Proverbs 26:11; Proverbs 30:24-31; Job 38:41. What the content of the instruction is is not clear. The Qumran Targum preserves the verb he makes us wise, as in A. V. as wiser than. Elihu instructs Job to learn from the animal world how to respond to GodPsa 104:21; Psalms 147:9; and Joe 1:20.

**Job 35:12**The verse harks back to verse nine but also connects with what follows, so the verse should not be transferred to follow verse nine. Elihu often goes back to something already said. It is not clear whether the verse is discussing the reason for their cry or the reason for not being heard. But in Elihu’s view, if one is not heard, one is in fact evil. Suffering is for discipline, but evil men do not recognize it.

**Job 35:13**That God requires pious petitions before His righteousness will prevail on earth but reveals the theological perspective of loquacious ElihuHab 1:13. It is possible that the verse says that the petition is not even addressed to God, but to empty space or void.

Job 35:14-16

4. Job has approached God in the wrong spirit. (Job 35:14-16)

TEXT 35:14-16

**14 How much less when thou sayest thou beholdest him not,

The cause is before him, and thou waitest for him!

15 But now, because he hath not visited in his anger,

Neither doth he greatly regard arrogance;

16 Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vanity;

He multiplieth words without knowledge.**

COMMENT 35:14-16

**Job 35:14**If God does not listen to those who do not turn to him, how much less would He listen to Job who relentlessly pursues Him with His complaints. Other men cry out against their oppressors; but Job cries out against GodJob 13:24; Job 23:8 ff; and Job 30:20. What basis does he have for believing that God will come to his aid and deliver him from disease and death?[349] But Elihu is no more convincing in polemic than in exhortation. Job has argued his case like a lawyerJob 13:18; Job 23:4, and Elihu declares that the outcome all depends on the judge. The A. V. rendering of cause comes from -din and is best understood as case in a legal sense.[350]

[349] See suggestions of G. R. Driver, Vetus Testamentum, 1955, p. 89.

[350] G. R. Driver, Vetus Testamentum, 1960, p. 89.

**Job 35:15**In Job 21:14 ff Job has asserted that the wicked go unpunished. Perhaps Elihu is referring to this Jobian claim. God does not regard arrogance, or perhaps with Brown, Driver, and Briggsfolly. The obscurity of this verse is not reduced by the A. V. rendering of greatly regard, as the Hebrew has greatly know, when we would expectnot know at all.

**Job 35:16**The verse is addressed to the bystanders, not Job.