Job 27

1 Job began to speak again.

And Job further continued and said in his parable,

2 “I promise you—as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made my life bitter,

[As] God lives, who has thus judge me; and the Almighty, who has embittered my soul;

3 for as long as I have life, while the breath of God remains in my nostrils—

verily, while my breath is yet in [me], and the breath of God which remains to me is in my nostrils,

4 my lips will never speak lies, my tongue will never be dishonest.

my lips shall not speak evil words, neither shall my soul meditate unrighteous thoughts.

5 I will never agree that you are right; I will insist on my innocence until the day I die.

Far be it from me that I should justify you till I die; for I will not let go my innocence,

6 I'm convinced I'm right and will never give up believing this; my conscience will not condemn me as long as I live.

but keeping fast to [my] righteousness I will by no means let it go: for I am not conscious to myself of having done any thing amiss.

7 May my enemy become like the wicked; may those who oppose me become like those who do evil.

Nay rather, but let mine enemies be as the overthrow of the ungodly, and they that rise up against me, as the destruction of transgressors.

8 For what hope do those who reject God have when he cuts them down, when God brings their lives to an end?

For what is the hope of the ungodly, that he holds to it? will he indeed trust in the Lord [and] be saved?

9 When times of trouble come to them, will God hear their cry for help?

Will God hear his prayer? or, when distress has come upon him,

10 Do they have a good relationship with the Almighty? Can they call on God at any time?

has he any confidence before him? or will [God] hear him as he calls upon him?

11 Let me explain God's power to you. I will not keep anything back that the Almighty has planned.

Yet now I will tell you what is in the hand of the Lord: I will not lie concerning the things which are with the Almighty.

12 If all of you have recognized this, why do you talk such vain nonsense?

Behold, you all know that you are adding vanity to vanity.

13 This is what God provides as the destiny for the wicked, this is the inheritance that the ruthless will receive from the Almighty—

This is the portion of an ungodly man from the Lord, and the possession of oppressors shall come upon them from the Almighty.

14 even if they have many children, they will experience violent deaths or die of starvation.

And if their children be many, they shall be for slaughter: and if they grow up, they shall beg.

15 Those who survive will die from disease, and even their widows will not mourn for them.

And they that survive of him shall utterly perish, and no one shall pity their widows.

16 Even though they pile up silver like dust, and clothes like heaps of clay,

Even if he should gather silver as earth, and prepare gold as clay;

17 those who do good will wear the clothes and the innocent will divide the silver among them.

All these things shall the righteous gain, and the true-hearted shall possess his wealth.

18 They build their houses like a moth; like some flimsy shelter made by a watchman.

And his house is gone like moths, and like a spider's web.

19 They go to bed rich, but never again! For when they wake up, it's all gone.

The rich man shall lie down, and shall not continue: he has opened his eyes, and he is not.

20 Waves of panic flood over them; in the night a whirlwind snatches them away.

Pains have come upon him as water, and darkness has carried him away by night.

21 The east wind picks them up and they're gone, carried away from where they were.

And a burning wind shall catch him, and he shall depart, and it shall utterly drive him out of his place.

22 The wind blows at them with full force; they try desperately to escape.

And [God] shall cast [trouble] upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand.

23 People clap their hands at them and hiss at them wherever they are.

He shall cause [men] to clap their hands against them, and shall hiss him out of his place.