Job35chapter 35

Job 35:1-4

Elihu opens his third speech by restating a charge against Job, my righteousness is more than God's, and promises an answer for Job's companions as well as for Job himself. Henry notes that Elihu is summarizing rather than quoting Job's exact words, tightening what Job argued in chapters 9 and 10 into a single hard claim to knock down. Gill reads verse 3 as Job's question turned into a complaint, what profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sin, which Elihu treats as the real center of Job's case.

Job 35:5-8

Elihu points Job to the heavens and clouds higher than himself, then asks the wager's own question from the other side: if thou sinnest, what doest thou against him, and if thou be righteous, what givest thou him. Satan's charge at 1:9 asked whether Job's piety was paid; Elihu's version at 35:7 asks whether God is the one being paid, and both point the same way, that a man's righteousness cannot obligate the Most High. Delitzsch reads verse 8 as the true weight of the answer, thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art, and thy righteousness may profit the son of man: sin and virtue land on neighbors, not on God's own account.

Job 35:9-11

Elihu names a real evil, oppressed men crying out under the weight of the mighty, and Barnes reads this as the honest half of his argument, the world plainly holds unanswered cries. Verse 10 is the chapter's keeper line, but none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night, and Spurgeon preached the sermon Songs in the Night directly from this verse, reading it as the praise God gives in the darkest hour rather than after it lifts. Gill takes the songs as mercies given even while the trouble continues, night itself made to sing, which is Elihu's answer to the cry of verse 9 before he gives it.

Job 35:12-13

Elihu diagnoses the silence he has just described, there they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men, and God will not hear vanity. Henry notes that Elihu is not denying real oppression but explaining why a particular cry goes unheard, pride corrupting the very prayer that ought to reach heaven. Wesley reads verse 13 as Elihu's general rule rather than Job's case specifically, though the sentence sits close enough to Job's own unanswered questions that the friends and the reader alike are meant to feel the edge.

Job 35:14-16

Elihu turns from the general rule to Job directly, although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him, therefore trust thou in him, urging patience where Job has demanded an audience. Clarke reads verse 15 as Elihu accusing Job of concluding too quickly that God's slowness to punish evil means God does not notice it. The speech closes on a hard verdict, Job openeth his mouth in vain, he multiplieth words without knowledge, which JFB reads as Elihu's own version of the charge the friends have already made and which God will judge differently at 42:7.