If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?
Job was a real person whose trial and patience stand as a lesson. The verse lies within Elihu's speeches and discourse, which occupy chapters 32 to 37 of Job, as part of the book's discussion of human suffering. In chapter 35 Elihu argues to convince Job that Job himself is not very great while God is everything. His point is man's exceeding smallness set against God's infinite power and wisdom in creation, which Job can only partly comprehend in a material sense and which therefore holds true in God's moral dealings with men, whose great purposes where eternal life itself is at stake Job can little understand. Job makes no answer to chapter 35.
Elihu's discourse is admirable but seemed not to help Job much. Statements by Job's companions could be generally true yet wrongly applied to Job's case. Human sin and multiplied transgressions do nothing to or against God, being unable to harm, injure, or diminish him or what he possesses. Human righteousness gives him nothing either. God calls people to serve him not because he needs them but for their own good, which counters the idea that God's requirements serve his own gain at human expense.
Job was a real person whose trial and patience stand as a lesson. The verse lies within Elihu's speeches and discourse, which occupy chapters 32 to 37 of Job, as part of the book's discussion of human suffering. In chapter 35 Elihu argues to convince Job that Job himself is not very great while God is everything. His point is man's exceeding smallness set against God's infinite power and wisdom in creation, which Job can only partly comprehend in a material sense and which therefore holds true in God's moral dealings with men, whose great purposes where eternal life itself is at stake Job can little understand. Job makes no answer to chapter 35.
Elihu's discourse is admirable but seemed not to help Job much. Statements by Job's companions could be generally true yet wrongly applied to Job's case. Human sin and multiplied transgressions do nothing to or against God, being unable to harm, injure, or diminish him or what he possesses. Human righteousness gives him nothing either. God calls people to serve him not because he needs them but for their own good, which counters the idea that God's requirements serve his own gain at human expense.