Job 35

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1Elihu spake moreover, and said,2Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?3For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?4I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.5Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.6If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?7If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?8Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.9By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty.10But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night;11Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?12There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men.13Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.14Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him.15But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity:16Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge.

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Notes for this chapter

Historical Background

Job Chapter 35 Study Notes

Elihu continues his extended address to Job in this chapter, pressing what he believes to be a fatal contradiction in Job's reasoning. The historical setting of Job places it in the patriarchal era, likely in the land of Uz, a region scholars associate with northwestern Arabia or the territory east of the Jordan. Elihu, who is young but evidently well-trained in the wisdom traditions of the ancient Near East, takes it upon himself to correct both Job and the three older friends. Ancient wisdom discourse often involved formal rhetorical challenges, and Elihu's repeated use of direct questions follows a well-established pattern of philosophical argument common to Semitic wisdom literature.

The name Elihu itself means “He is my God,” and there is a certain irony in a man bearing that name speaking so forcefully about the nature of God while still missing something essential about the situation before him.

Core Teaching

The core charge Elihu levels against Job in verses two and three is that Job has effectively claimed a moral standing that rivals or surpasses God's own. This is a sharp reading of Job's earlier words, though scholars debate how fairly Elihu represents them. What Job actually said, particularly in chapters nine, ten, and twenty-one, was closer to a lament that righteousness seemed to bring no visible reward under God's present governance. Elihu takes this as Job asserting that his righteousness is greater than God's, and that moral living carries no profit.

Matthew Henry notes that this mischaracterization, even if partially grounded in Job's words, reveals the danger of letting grief push language beyond its careful limits. Job had spoken in anguish, and Elihu, ever the precise logician, holds those words to a strict accounting.

In verses five through eight, Elihu makes a genuinely important theological point, though he applies it imperfectly. He directs Job to look upward at the sky and clouds far above him, and then argues that human sin cannot diminish God, nor can human righteousness enrich Him. God is simply too high, too complete, too self-sufficient to be harmed or benefited by anything a creature does. The Hebrew word for “high” here carries a sense of transcendent elevation that ancient readers would have felt vividly standing under the vast open skies of the ancient Near East.

Barnes' Notes points out that Elihu is correct in his theology here: God's essential being is not increased or decreased by human behavior. What Elihu misses, and what the entire book of Job is quietly revealing, is that God does care deeply about human conduct, not because He needs anything from us, but because He loves His creatures and because the moral universe He has created is bound together by real consequences. Verse eight is the quietly profound corrective within Elihu's own speech: wickedness and righteousness do matter enormously to fellow human beings, to the sons of men, even if they cannot touch the infinite God Himself.

Commentary Insights

Verses nine through thirteen shift to the broader question of unanswered prayer and the cries of the oppressed. Elihu observes that many people cry out under oppression and receive no answer, and his explanation is that they cry without turning to God their Maker. They appeal to God out of self-interest and pride, without genuine seeking, without acknowledging Him as the source of all good. The phrase “songs in the night” in verse ten is one of the most beautiful in this chapter, and Ellen White reflects on this very image in various writings, noting that genuine trust in God produces a peace and even a praise that rises in the darkest hours, not dependent on circumstances but anchored in the character of God Himself.

Elihu's point is that the suffering masses do not ask “Where is God my Maker?” with true hearts, and so their cries remain self-absorbed rather than worshipful. There is pastoral truth in this observation, even if Elihu wrongly implies that this is precisely Job's problem.

Reflection & Application

The closing verses, fourteen through sixteen, are where Elihu's argument weakens most noticeably. He tells Job that even though Job cannot see God, judgment remains before Him, and Job should simply trust. This is sound counsel, but Elihu then stumbles badly, suggesting in verse fifteen that God has visited Job in anger and that Job does not even perceive the full gravity of his situation. He concludes in verse sixteen by dismissing Job's entire passionate argument as empty words multiplied without knowledge.

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown observe that this final verdict is deeply ironic because it is Elihu himself who is speaking in some measure without knowledge, unaware that Job's suffering is not the result of divine anger at all but of a cosmic contest in the heavenly courts. From an Adventist perspective, this chapter illustrates the Great Controversy principle beautifully: human observers, even sincere and articulate ones like Elihu, cannot always correctly read the reasons behind suffering when they are not privy to the larger spiritual drama being played out. God's silence is not indifference, and suffering is not always punishment. The full vindication of both Job and of God's character awaits the divine voice that will break through in chapter thirty-eight, and Elihu's confident closing verdict will look quite different in that coming light.

Go deeper — references Classic commentaries on this chapter

Matthew Henry's Commentary Matthew Henry (1662–1714) Adam Clarke's Commentary Adam Clarke (1760–1832) Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871) Barnes' Notes on the Bible Albert Barnes (1798–1870) EGW Writings Ellen G. White Blue Letter Bible Study tools and lexicon

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