Job 27

Job 27

Job Maintains His Integrity

1Job again took up his discourse and said:[#Job 13.12; 29.1]

2“As God lives, who has taken away my right,[#Job 9.18; 34.5]

and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,

3as long as my breath is in me

and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,

4my lips will not speak falsehood,[#Job 6.28]

and my tongue will not utter deceit.

5Far be it from me to say that you are right;[#Job 2.9; 13.15]

until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.

6I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;[#Job 2.3; 13.18; Acts 23.1]

my heart will not reproach me as long as I live.

7“May my enemy be like the wicked,

and may my opponent be like the unrighteous.

8For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts them off,[#Job 8.13; 11.20]

when God takes away their lives?

9Will God hear their cry[#Job 35.12; Prov 1.28; Isa 1.15; Jer 14.12; Mic 3.4]

when trouble comes upon them?

10Will they take delight in the Almighty?[#Job 22.26, 27; #27.10 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai]

Will they call upon God at all times?

11I will teach you concerning the hand of God;

that which is with the Almighty I will not conceal.

12All of you have seen it yourselves;

why then have you become altogether vain?

13“This is the portion of the wicked with God[#Job 15.20; 20.29]

and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:

14If their children are multiplied, it is for the sword,[#Deut 28.41; Job 20.10; Hos 9.13]

and their offspring have not enough to eat.

15Those who survive them the pestilence buries,[#Ps 78.64]

and their widows make no lamentation.

16Though they heap up silver like dust[#Zech 9.3]

and pile up clothing like clay,

17they may pile it up, but the just will wear it,[#Prov 28.8; Eccl 2.26]

and the innocent will divide the silver.

18They build their houses like nests,

like booths made by sentinels of the vineyard.

19They go to bed with wealth but will do so no more;[#Job 7.8, 21; Ezek 29.5]

they open their eyes, and it is gone.

20Terrors overtake them like a flood;[#Job 15.21; 20.8]

in the night a whirlwind carries them off.

21The east wind lifts them up, and they are gone;[#Job 7.10; 21.18]

it sweeps them out of their place.

22It hurls at them without pity;[#Job 11.20; Jer 13.14; Ezek 5.11; #27.22 Or He (that is, God)]

they flee from its power in headlong flight.

23It claps its hands at them[#Job 18.18; Lam 2.15; #27.23 Or He (that is, God); #27.23 Or his]

and hisses at them from its place.

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ