Job 27

 

Job 27

1 And Job continued his discourse:

² “As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice,
the Almighty, who has made my life bitter,

³ as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils,

⁴ my lips will not say anything wicked, and my tongue will not utter lies.

⁵ I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity.

⁶ I will maintain my innocence and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.

⁷ “May my enemy be like the wicked, my adversary like the unjust!

⁸ For what hope have the godless when they are cut off,
when God takes away their life?

⁹ Does God listen to their cry when distress comes upon them?

¹⁰ Will they find delight in the Almighty? Will they call on God at all times?

¹¹ “I will teach you about the power of God; the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.

¹² You have all seen this yourselves. Why then this meaningless talk?

¹³ “Here is the fate God allots to the wicked, the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:

¹⁴ However many his children, their fate is the sword;
his offspring will never have enough to eat.

¹⁵ The plague will bury those who survive him, and their widows will not weep for them.

¹⁶ Though he heaps up silver like dust and clothes like piles of clay,

¹⁷ what he lays up the righteous will wear, and the innocent will divide his silver.

¹⁸ The house he builds is like a moth’s cocoon, like a hut made by a watchman.

¹⁹ He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, all is gone.

²⁰ Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest snatches him away in the night.

²¹ The east wind carries him off, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.

²² It hurls itself against him without mercy as he flees headlong from its power.

²³ It claps its hands in derision and hisses him out of his place.”