Job 27

¹And Job continued his discourse:

²"As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made me taste bitterness of soul,

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

⁴my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will utter no deceit.

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

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

⁷"May my enemies be like the wicked, my adversaries like the unjust!

⁸For what hope has the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

⁹Does God listen to his cry when distress comes upon him?

¹⁰Will he find delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?

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

¹²You 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:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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