Late afternoon on the gray ash heap, looking north: a small wrapped man sits with his back to us and a young man in a red head cloth stands a little apart, face lifted, a long bank of cloud low on the horizon under a calm, empty, pale sky.

The Book of

Job 35

Elihu’s third speech. Job has not answered him. Look up, he says. What can you do to the sky?

16 verses≈ 3 min2 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

Tap any post to go deeper

In this chapter

Where we are

1–3The testBlameless, stripped of everything, and his cry
4–14Round oneThe friends speak; Job answers
15–21Round twoMy Redeemer lives
22–31Round threeThen wisdom, and Job's last defense
32–37ElihuA younger voiceChapter 35
38–41The LORD speaksOut of the whirlwind
42The endJob prays and is restored

Elihu Recalls God’s Justice

Elihu

And Elihu went on to say:

“Do you think this is just?

You say, ‘I am more righteous than God.’

For you ask, ‘What does it profit me,

and what benefit do I gain apart from sin?’

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

Elihu

Seen from low on the ground, a young man in a red head cloth stands from behind on a bare gravel rise, head back, very small under vast high banks of white cloud.

I will reply to you

and to your friends as well.

Look to the heavens and see;

gaze at the clouds high above you.

Elihu

Reflect

What does He receive from your hand?

“If you are righteous, what do you give Him”? God needs nothing from you. What changes when you serve Him with nothing to bargain with? Write down one thing you do for God that you may be doing for a reward.

Elihu

On a clear night a shepherd sits on a low rock among sleeping sheep beside black tents, seen from behind, head lifted under a sky full of stars.

Men cry out under great oppression;

they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.

But no one asks, ‘Where is God my Maker,

who gives us songs in the night,

who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth

and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’

0:15

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Elihu

There they cry out, but He does not answer,

because of the pride of evil men.

Surely God does not listen to empty pleas,

and the Almighty does not take note of it.

Elihu

Elihu

How much less, then, when you say that you do not see Him,

that your case is before Him and you must wait for Him,

and further, that in His anger He has not punished

or taken much notice of folly!

Elihu

So Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge.

Question

Quick question

Elihu on the prayers no one prays.

What does Elihu say no one asks?

You’ve experienced

Job 35

0 of 42 chapters read

A verse to carry with you

Where is God my Maker, who gives us songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?

Job 35:10–11

or swipe left