Job 35:3
For you ask, ‘What does it profit me, and what benefit do I gain apart from sin?’
BSB
ASV
That thou sayest, What advantage will it be unto thee? And, What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?
KJV
For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
For thou saidst, that which is right doth not please thee, or what will it profit thee, if I shall have sinned. If the whole course of the book is attended to, blessed Job is proved to have said none of these things. But haughty men, as we have also said before, are wont to have this peculiarity, that while they go on in violent invective, they also speak falsely in their inveighing, and that, when they cannot justly blame the things which exist, they reprehend, in their falsehood, those which do not exist.
For thou saidst - Another sentiment of a similar kind which Elihu proposes to examine. He had already adverted to this sentiment of Job in Job 34:9, and examined it at some length, and had shown in reply to it that God could not be unjust, and that there was great impropriety when man presumed to arraign the justice of the Most High. He now adverts to it again in order to show that God could not be benefited or injured by the conduct of man, and that he was, therefore, under no inducement to treat him otherwise than impartially.
Rather, explanatory of "this" in Job 35:2, "That thou sayest (to thyself, as if a distinct person) What advantage is it (thy integrity) to thee? What profit have I (by integrity) more than (I should have) by my sin?" that is, more than if I had sinned (Job 34:9).
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Malachi 3:14You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the LORD of Hosts?
leads to
“Why have we fasted, and You have not seen? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have not noticed?” “Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please, and you oppress…
They mock and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.
And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men settled in complacency, who say to themselves, ‘The LORD will do nothing, either good or bad.’
Through
Job 34:9For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.’
leads to
You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the LORD of Hosts?
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
Through
Job 10:15If I am guilty, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am full of shame and aware of my affliction.
leads to
Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.
Through
Psalms 73:13Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure; in innocence I have washed my hands.
leads to
I wash my hands in innocence that I may go about Your altar, O LORD,
Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’
For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.’