Job · chapter 35 of 42
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In Job 35 Elihu answers the question he attributes to Job: what good is it to be righteous? He tells Job to look at the heavens, higher than he, and says that neither his sin harms God nor his righteousness gives him anything. He says many cry out under oppression without asking after God, who gives songs in the night, and that God does not heed an empty cry. Job, he says, speaks in vain.
Elihu's third speech is short and belongs to a set of four. Job 35 starts from two things Elihu attributes to Job: that he claims a right before God and that he asks what good it is to be righteous. Elihu's answer touches truths about God's greatness and man's cry, though his conclusion is harsh with Job.
Elihu asks Job whether he thinks it just to say his right is greater than God's. He quotes Job: what advantage have I, how am I better off than if I had sinned? Elihu promises to answer him and his friends (vv. 1-4). He invites him to look at the heavens and see the clouds, which are higher than he (v. 5).
Then he argues that if Job sins, he does not harm God, and if he is righteous, he gives him nothing God does not have. His wickedness affects men like himself, and his righteousness the children of men (vv. 6-8).
Elihu observes that people cry out under great oppression and call for help against the arm of the mighty, but they do not say where God my Maker is, who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens. There they cry out, but God does not answer because of the pride of evil men. God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it. How much less when Job says he does not see him, that his case is before God and that he waits. Elihu ends by saying Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge (vv. 9-16).
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Elihu invites Job to look at the heavens and see how high God is. If Job sins, he does not harm God, and if he is righteous, he gives him nothing; his conduct affects people. The argument reminds us that righteousness is lived out of love for neighbor and God, not as an exchange with him.
Elihu says people do not ask where God my Maker is, who gives songs in the night. It is a beautiful phrase: God is Creator and also the one who gives songs in the midst of darkness, that is, hope in the night.
Elihu claims that God does not answer because of the pride of the wicked and does not hear an empty cry. His idea is that a cry without real seeking of God receives no answer. Applied to Job, it is unjust, since Job cries precisely to God.
Elihu says that although Job claims he cannot see God, his case is before him and he must wait for him. There is wise counsel in that, to wait on God, though Elihu says it as a rebuke rather than comfort.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: What good it does him to be righteous and what he gains more than if he had sinned. — Job 35:3
Answer: The heavens and the clouds, which are higher than he is. — Job 35:5
Answer: People, a man like himself and the children of men, not God. — Job 35:8
Answer: Where God their Maker is, who gives songs in the night. — Job 35:10
Answer: An empty cry. — Job 35:13
Answer: Opening his mouth in vain and multiplying words without knowledge. — Job 35:16
Job 35 raises a question we have all asked: what is the use of doing good? Elihu answers that obedience gives God nothing he lacks, but it does bless people. In a small group, this idea can help us live our faith without thinking we serve God to get something in return.
It also invites us to lift our eyes to the heavens and remember that God gives songs in the night. In trial, believers can expect God to give hope even in darkness, though without Elihu's quick certainties about why God is silent.
Job 35 stands as a brief speech with truths about God's greatness and an unjust reproach of Job. In chapter 36 Elihu will speak again, this time to ascribe righteousness to his Maker and describe how God teaches through suffering.
It is a poetic image of the hope and comfort God gives in darkness. It applies to hard times when, even without understanding, the believer can praise God, as Paul and Silas did in prison (Acts 16:25).
Elihu says it to claim that a cry without sincere seeking receives no answer. The Bible teaches that God hears those who call on him from the heart, and that God also hears the cry of the oppressed (Exodus 3:7); Elihu's phrase should not be used against someone who suffers.
Because God does not depend on people or suffer harm from their conduct. It is a truth about God's greatness, but it leaves out that the Bible also says sin grieves God and that he cares about human justice.