Job 35

Chapter 35 of the Book of Job is commonly identified as the third of Elihu's speeches (chapters 32–37), which come after the debate between Job and his three friends has ended. Having defended God's justice in Job 34, Elihu now addresses Job's complaint that righteous living brings no benefit.

Outline

• Verses 1–4: Elihu continues speaking. He charges that Job, regarding himself as more righteous than God, asks what profit he gains from not sinning. Elihu then says he will answer Job and his companions.
• Verses 5–8: Elihu tells Job to look at the heavens and the clouds high above. Human sin does not harm God, and human righteousness adds nothing to Him; their effects reach only human beings.
• Verses 9–13: People cry out because of oppression and the power of the mighty. Yet no one seeks God, who made humankind, gives songs in the night, and makes people wiser than the beasts and the birds. Therefore, Elihu says, the empty cries of the proud receive no answer.
• Verses 14–16: Elihu says that God is all the less likely to listen when Job claims that he cannot see God and can only wait. He concludes that because God has not yet punished in His anger, Job speaks in vain and multiplies words without knowledge.

Key Verses

• Job 35:7: "If thou be righteous, what givest thou him?" This expresses Elihu's thesis that God neither gains nor loses by human conduct.
• Job 35:10: "Who giveth songs in the night." The phrase describes God as the one who leads people to seek and praise Him even in suffering.
• Job 35:16: "He multiplieth words without knowledge." This is Elihu's verdict on Job, and it anticipates the divine speeches that follow.

People and Places

• Elihu: The son of Barachel the Buzite (Job 32:2). Younger than Job and the three friends, he begins speaking in chapter 32.
• Job: The one whom Elihu addresses directly.
• "Thy companions" in verse 4 is commonly read as referring to Job's three friends. Some interpreters take it more broadly to mean all who share Job's views.

Interpretive Considerations

• The claim that human righteousness does not profit God resembles the words of Eliphaz (Job 22:2–3). Some interpreters therefore see Elihu as repeating the reasoning of the three friends. Others see him as preparing the way for God's speeches (Job 38 and following). In Job 42, God rebukes the three friends but does not mention Elihu, a fact cited in support of both interpretations.
• In verse 2, the Hebrew expression can be rendered either "more righteous than God" or "righteous before God," so translations differ. Verse 15 is also regarded as difficult to interpret.
• The phrase "words without knowledge" in verse 16 closely resembles God's opening words to Job (Job 38:2).
• The idea in verse 7 that God does not need to receive anything from human beings is sometimes compared with Paul's address at Athens (Acts 17:25).

In the Korean Church

• The phrase "who giveth songs in the night" in verse 10 is often quoted in sermons on praise amid suffering. In such sermons it is sometimes presented alongside Acts 16:25, where Paul and Silas sang praises to God at midnight in prison.