The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Wickedness” it comes from the Hebrew Word “resha” which means “wickedness.”
Elihu challenges Job’s assumption that his righteousness should have earned him better treatment. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Job 35.
Elihu continues, asking whether Job thinks this is right, that he said his righteousness is more than God’s, since Job has asked what advantage it will be to him, and what profit he has if he is cleansed from his sin, Elihu offering to answer him and his companions with him.
Elihu asks Job to look unto the heavens and see, and behold the clouds, which are higher than he, wondering what he does against God if he sins, or what effect his transgressions have if he multiplies them, and if he is righteous, what he gives God, or what He receives from his hand, since his “wickedness,” “resha” in Hebrew, may hurt a man as himself, and his righteousness may profit the son of man, but neither adds anything to God Himself, who remains entirely self-sufficient and unaffected by human merit or failure.
Elihu explains that by reason of the multitude of oppressions, people cry out, crying out by reason of the arm of the mighty, but none says, where is God my maker, who gives songs in the night, who teaches more than the beasts of the earth and makes wiser than the fowls of heaven, so there they cry, but none gives answer because of the pride of evil men, since God does not hear vanity, nor will the Almighty regard it, much less then when Job says he does not see Him, yet judgment is before Him, so he should trust in Him, but now, because it is not so, He has visited in His anger, yet Job has not known it in great extremity, since he opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge, another somewhat harsh assessment that nonetheless raises the important, genuinely thought-provoking question of what human righteousness or wickedness ultimately means to an entirely self-sufficient God.
Elihu’s question about what human righteousness or sin actually adds to or subtracts from God Himself raises a genuinely important theological point, that our moral choices matter for our own sake and for those around us, not because God needs anything from us. This perspective helpfully reframes the entire conversation away from transactional thinking, toward understanding righteousness as valuable in itself rather than merely as currency to be exchanged for divine favor.
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