Job 27
Contemporary English Version
Job Continues
I Am Desperate
27 Job said:
2 I am desperate because
God All-Powerful refuses
to do what is right.
As surely as God lives,
3 and while he gives me breath,
4 I will tell only the truth.
5 Until the day I die,
I will refuse to do wrong
by saying you are right,
6 because each day my conscience
agrees that I am innocent.
7 I pray that my enemies
will suffer no less
than the wicked.
8 Such people are hopeless,
and God All-Powerful
will cut them down,
9 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
- 27.19 poor: Or “dead.”
Job 27
Expanded Bible
27 And Job continued ·speaking [L his discourse]:
2 “·As surely as God lives [By the living God], who has ·taken away [turned aside] my rights,
·the Almighty [Shaddai], who has made me ·unhappy [bitter],
3 as long as ·I am alive [my breath is in me]
and God’s ·breath of life [L spirit; breath; Gen. 2:7; Eccl. 12:7] is in my nose,
4 my lips will not speak ·evil [or falsehood],
and my tongue will not ·tell [L mutter] ·a lie [deceit].
5 ·I will never [Far be it from me to] ·agree [concede] you are right;
until I ·die [expire], I will never ·stop saying I am innocent [L turn aside my innocence].
6 I will ·insist that I am right [L embrace my righteousness]; I will not ·back down [weaken].
·My conscience will never bother me [L My heart will not reproach my days].
7 “Let my enemies be like evil people,
·my foes [those who rise up against me] like ·those who are wrong [the guilty].
8 What hope do the wicked have when they ·die [L are cut off],
when God ·takes their life away [requires their life]?
9 God will not listen to their cries
when trouble comes to them.
10 ·They will not [Will they…?] find joy in ·the Almighty [Shaddai],
·even though [or will…?] they call out to God all the time.
11 “I will ·teach [instruct] you about the ·power [L hand] of God
and will not ·hide [conceal] ·the ways of [L that which is with] ·the Almighty [Shaddai].
12 You have all seen this yourselves.
·So why are we having all this talk that means nothing [L Why have you become so meaningless/vaporous/vain]?
13 “Here is ·what God has planned for evil people [L the lot of evil people with God],
and ·that the Almighty will give to cruel people [L the inheritance that the cruel receive from the Almighty/Shaddai]:
14 They may have many children, but the sword will kill them.
Their ·children [L offspring] will never have enough ·to eat [L bread; food].
15 Then those who are left will die of disease and be buried,
and the widows will not even cry for them.
16 ·The wicked [L They] may heap up silver like ·piles of dirt [dust]
and ·have so many clothes they are like piles of clay [pile up clothes like mounds of earth/clay].
17 But ·good people [the righteous] will wear ·what evil people have gathered [L them],
and the innocent will ·divide up [distribute among themselves] their silver.
18 ·The houses the wicked build are [L They will build their houses] like a ·spider’s web [or moth’s cocoon],
like a ·hut [booth; shelter] that a guard builds.
19 ·The wicked are rich when they go to bed [L They may lie down wealthy],
but ·they are rich for the last time [L not again];
when they open their eyes, everything is gone.
20 ·Fears [Terrors] ·come over [overtake] them like ·a flood [waters],
and a storm snatches them away in the night.
21 The east wind will ·carry them away [L lift them up], and then they are gone,
because it sweeps them out of their place.
22 ·The wind [or God; L He; It] will hit them without mercy
as they ·try to run away [flee] from ·its power [or his power/hand].
23 It will be as if ·the wind [or God; L he; it] is clapping ·its [or his] hands;
·it [or he] will ·whistle [or hiss] at them as they run from their place [C clapping and hissing are gestures of contempt].
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