Elihu wants to offer a rebuttal to another of Job’s complaints.
“Do you think it is just when you say, “I am righteous before God?” For you ask, “what does it profit You, and what benefit comes to me, if I do not sin?”” (Job 35:2-3).
Job has been saying what does it benefit if he is righteous before God if he is treated the same as one who sins? Elihu responds that whether one is righteous or sinful, God himself is not affected. But people are.
“Your wickedness affects a person like yourself, and your righteousness another human being” (Job 35:8-9).
People cry out because because they are oppressed. But they don’t necessarily cry out for God when all things are wonderful. Even in hard times they don’t recognize God as their maker.
Elihu says that “God does not listen to empty cries, and the Almighty does not take note of it” (Job 35:13). Elihu is saying that God does not answer those who are insincere and are steeped in the “pride of evil men” (Job 35:12). Basically Elihu is saying of Job that he is insincere and does not appreciate the Almighty, he is prideful and he is evil. Therefore why should God listen to him?
Elihu then says “God’s anger does not punish and He does not pay attention to transgression, Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge” (Job 35:16).
This is not so easy to understand but it could mean he is saying that Job is not getting what he deserves in God punishing him, and so Job is complaining in vain that there’s no value in righteousness.
Honestly this is a hard one to understand Elihu’s logical flow. We can ascertain some things:
Elihu thinks Job’s complaint that his righteousness doesn’t benefit if he is punished as others is a nonsense argument.
