Add parallel Print Page Options

Job Continues

I Am Desperate

27 Job said:
I am desperate because
God All-Powerful refuses
    to do what is right.
As surely as God lives,
and while he gives me breath,
    I will tell only the truth.
Until the day I die,
I will refuse to do wrong
    by saying you are right,
because each day my conscience
    agrees that I am innocent.

I pray that my enemies
will suffer no less
    than the wicked.
Such people are hopeless,
and God All-Powerful
    will cut them down,
without listening
    when they beg for mercy.
10 And that is what God should do,
because they don't like him
    or ever pray.
11 Now I will explain in detail
    what God All-Powerful does.
12 All of you have seen these things
for yourselves.
    So you have no excuse.

How God Treats the Wicked

13 Here is how God All-Powerful
treats those who are wicked
    and brutal.
14 They may have many children,
but most of them will go hungry
    or suffer a violent death.
15 Others will die of disease,
and their widows
    won't be able to weep.
16 The wicked may collect riches
and clothes in abundance
    as easily as clay.
17 But God's people will wear
clothes taken from them
    and divide up their riches.
18 No homes built by the wicked
will outlast a cocoon
    or a shack.
19 Those sinners may go to bed rich,
    but they will wake up poor.[a]
20 Terror will strike at night
    like a flood or a storm.
21 Then a scorching wind
    will sweep them away
22 without showing mercy,
    as they try to escape.
23 At last, the wind will celebrate
    because they are gone.

Footnotes

  1. 27.19 poor: Or “dead.”

Job’s Final Word to His Friends

27 And Job continued his discourse:(A)

“As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice,(B)
    the Almighty,(C) who has made my life bitter,(D)
as long as I have life within me,
    the breath of God(E) in my nostrils,
my lips will not say anything wicked,
    and my tongue will not utter lies.(F)
I will never admit you are in the right;
    till I die, I will not deny my integrity.(G)
I will maintain my innocence(H) and never let go of it;
    my conscience(I) will not reproach me as long as I live.(J)

“May my enemy be like the wicked,(K)
    my adversary(L) like the unjust!
For what hope have the godless(M) when they are cut off,
    when God takes away their life?(N)
Does God listen to their cry
    when distress comes upon them?(O)
10 Will they find delight in the Almighty?(P)
    Will they call on God at all times?

11 “I will teach you about the power of God;
    the ways(Q) of the Almighty I will not conceal.(R)
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:(S)
14 However many his children,(T) their fate is the sword;(U)
    his offspring will never have enough to eat.(V)
15 The plague will bury those who survive him,
    and their widows will not weep for them.(W)
16 Though he heaps up silver like dust(X)
    and clothes like piles of clay,(Y)
17 what he lays up(Z) the righteous will wear,(AA)
    and the innocent will divide his silver.(AB)
18 The house(AC) he builds is like a moth’s cocoon,(AD)
    like a hut(AE) made by a watchman.
19 He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more;(AF)
    when he opens his eyes, all is gone.(AG)
20 Terrors(AH) overtake him like a flood;(AI)
    a tempest snatches him away in the night.(AJ)
21 The east wind(AK) carries him off, and he is gone;(AL)
    it sweeps him out of his place.(AM)
22 It hurls itself against him without mercy(AN)
    as he flees headlong(AO) from its power.(AP)
23 It claps its hands(AQ) in derision
    and hisses him out of his place.”(AR)