Job 35 Overview
Elihu answers Job’s questions about the value of righteousness by stressing God’s transcendence: human wickedness does not injure God as it injures other people, and human righteousness does not enrich Him. He also says oppressed people may cry out without truly seeking the Maker who gives songs in the night.
Before you read Job 35
Coming from
Chapter 34 defended God’s justice and criticized Job’s speech.
In this chapter
Elihu considers what human conduct does and does not do to the transcendent God and why cries for relief are not always answered immediately.
Leads into
Chapter 36 begins Elihu’s final and longest argument, presenting God as mighty, just, and able to use affliction for instruction.
Key understandingExplore deeper
Elihu rightly rejects the idea that God depends on human goodness for His own well-being. But human righteousness is still morally meaningful because God commands it and because it affects other people. Transcendence should not be twisted into moral indifference.
Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper
Truth 1
God is not made greater by human righteousness or injured in His being by human sin.
Truth 2
Human conduct nevertheless profoundly affects neighbors and remains accountable to God.
Truth 3
Crying out under oppression is not identical to humbly seeking God, though human beings cannot infallibly judge every sufferer’s heart.
Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper
Connection 1
Acts 17:24-25 teaches that God is not served as though He needed anything from humans.
Connection 2
Psalm 42:8 speaks of God’s song in the night, a phrase resonant with Elihu’s language.
Connection 3
Romans 11:35 asks who has first given to God that repayment should be owed.
What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper
Keep this clear 1
Do not conclude that because God is self-sufficient, human obedience or injustice does not matter to Him.
Keep this clear 2
Elihu’s explanation of unanswered cries should not be used to accuse every unanswered sufferer of pride.
Keep this clear 3
The chapter engages Job’s argument but does not replace the coming divine speech.
Read Job 35 watching for…
The distinction between what human conduct does to God and to other people.
The cries of the oppressed.
The phrase about songs in the night.
Elihu’s concern with pride.
The continuing theme that Job has spoken beyond his knowledge.