Comentário sobre Jó 35:8

a man like yourself your wickedness or your righteousness can and will benefit. Observe [that there are] many wicked men. who,...

The only person affected by man’s behavior is man himself. Elihu’s thesis is that man’s relationship with God is like that between a patient and his doctor. The doctor neither rewards his patient for taking the medicine he prescribes nor punishes him for refusing to: the patient’s reward or punishment is inherent in the prescription. Thus, the reward the patient gets for taking the medicine is that he gets better and his punishment for not taking it is that he doesn’t and might even die. This principle applies both to persons and to societies: their reward and punishment is inherent in their choices and actions. Furthermore, all creatures have been endowed by God with ways of protecting themselves. In addition, mankind has been endowed with the faculty to govern its own affairs. If they do so properly, they prosper; if they do not, they suffer. Therefore, let man look to himself for the reasons for his own condition. Referring specifically to Job’s complaints about God’s apparent indifference to the way the wicked exploit the weak,³¹The Fifteenth Oration, in particular Ch.24. Elihu adds that it is not only God’s job to deal with tyrants, pirates and other evil-doers but man’s as well, through the instruments of human government. And if man is negligent in this duty, what right does he have to complain about God.