Job: Final Word to His Friends

¹Job again continued his discourse, and said,

²“As God lives, who has taken away my right,

the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter

³for as long as my life is still in me,

and the breath of God is in my nostrils;

⁴surely my lips will not speak unrighteousness,

neither will my tongue utter deceit.

⁵Far be it from me that I would declare y’all correct.

Until I die, I will not deny my integrity.

⁶I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go.

My heart will not reproach me so long as I live.

⁷“Let my enemy be as the wicked.

Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

⁸For what is the hope of the godless, when they are cut off,

when God takes away their life?

⁹Will God hear their cry when trouble comes on them?

¹⁰Will he take delight in the Almighty,

and call on God at all times?

¹¹I will teach y’all about the hand of God.

I will not conceal that which is with the Almighty.

¹²Look! All of y’all have seen it.

Why then have y’all been so vain and empty?

¹³“This is the portion of a wicked man with God,

the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.

¹⁴If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword.

His offspring will not be satisfied with bread.

¹⁵His survivors will be buried in death.

His widows will make no lamentation.

¹⁶Though he heap up silver as the dust,

and prepare clothing as the clay;

¹⁷he may prepare it, but the just will put it on,

and the innocent will divide the silver.

¹⁸He builds his house as the moth,

as a booth which the watchman makes.

¹⁹He lies down rich, but he will not do so again.

He opens his eyes, and he is not.

²⁰Terrors overtake him like waters.

A storm steals him away in the night.

²¹The east wind carries him away, and he departs.

It sweeps him out of his place.

²²For it hurls at him, and does not spare,

as he flees-flees away from its hand.

²³Men will clap their hands at him,

and will hiss him out of his place.