For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?
Explanatory of "this" in Job 35:2, 'For thou sayest (to thyself, as if a distinct person), What advantage is it (thy integrity) to thee? What profit have I (by, integrity) more than (I should have) by my sin?' - i:e., more than if I had sinned (Job 34:9). Job had said that the wicked, who use these very words, do not suffer for it (Job 21:13-15); whereby he virtually sanctioned their sentiments: as also by regarding his own righteousness as giving him a claim to exemption from trials, and therefore considering that as he was nevertheless afflicted, righteousness is of no profit. The same change of persons from oblique to direct address occurs in Job 19:28; Job 22:17.