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continued, saying:
2 “Do you think it is just when you say,
‘I am righteous before God’?
3 Yet you ask, ‘What advantage do I have,
and what profit do I gain from not sinning?’
4 “I will answer you,
and your companions with you.
5 Look at the heavens and see;
gaze at the clouds high above you.
6 If you sin, how is God affected?
If your transgressions are multiplied,
what does that 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 affects a man like yourself,
and your righteousness, the sons of man.
9 “Through a heavy load of oppression people cry out;
they plead for help because of the arm of the mighty.
10 But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
who gives songs in the night,
11 who teaches more to us than the beasts of the earth,
and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’
12 Then they cry out, but He does not answer,
because of the pride of evil men.
13 Surely God does not listen to their empty plea,
nor will the Almighty regard it.
14 How much less, then, when you say
that you do not see Him,
although your case is before Him,
and you are waiting for Him.
15 But now, because He has not punished in His anger,
and He does not take much notice of transgression,
16 so Job opens his mouth with empty talk;
he multiplies words without knowledge.”