351 Moreover Elihu answered and said: 2 "Do you think this is right? Do you say, 'My righteousness is more than God's'? 3 For you say, 'What advantage will it be to You? What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?' 4 "I will answer you, And your companions with you. 5 Look to the heavens and see; And behold the clouds-- They are higher than you. 6 If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? Or, if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him? 7 If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He receive from your hand? 8 Your wickedness affects a man such as you, And your righteousness a son of man.
9 "Because of the multitude of oppressions they cry out; They cry out 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 us more than the beasts of the earth, And makes us wiser than the birds of heaven?' 12 There they cry out, but He does not answer, Because of the pride of evil men. 13 Surely God will not listen to empty talk, Nor will the Almighty regard it.
14 Although you say you do not see Him, Yet justice is before Him, and you must wait for Him. 15 And now, because He has not punished in His anger, Nor taken much notice of folly, 16 Therefore Job opens his mouth in vain; He multiplies words without knowledge."
31 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 And Job spoke, and said: 3 "May the day perish on which I was born, And the night in which it was said, 'A male child is conceived.' 4 May that day be darkness; May God above not seek it, Nor the light shine upon it. 5 May darkness and the shadow of death claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it. 6 As for that night, may darkness seize it; May it not rejoice among the days of the year, May it not come into the number of the months. 7 Oh, may that night be barren! May no joyful shout come into it! 8 May those curse it who curse the day, Those who are ready to arouse Leviathan. 9 May the stars of its morning be dark; May it look for light, but have none, And not see the dawning of the day; 10 Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother's womb, Nor hide sorrow from my eyes.
11 "Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? 12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse? 13 For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep; Then I would have been at rest 14 With kings and counselors of the earth, Who built ruins for themselves, 15 Or with princes who had gold, Who filled their houses with silver; 16 Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, Like infants who never saw light? 17 There the wicked cease from troubling, And there the weary are at rest. 18 There the prisoners rest together; They do not hear the voice of the oppressor. 19 The small and great are there, And the servant is free from his master.
20 "Why is light given to him who is in misery, And life to the bitter of soul, 21 Who long for death, but it does not come, And search for it more than hidden treasures; 22 Who rejoice exceedingly, And are glad when they can find the grave? 23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, And whom God has hedged in? 24 For my sighing comes before I eat, And my groanings pour out like water. 25 For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has happened to me. 26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes."
