Job 27

“As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice,
    the Almighty, who has made my life bitter,

“I vow by the living God, who has taken away my rights,
    by the Almighty who has embittered my soul—

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

As long as I live,
    while I have breath from God,

my lips will not say anything wicked,
    and my tongue will not utter lies.

my lips will speak no evil,
    and my tongue will speak no lies.

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

I will never concede that you are right;
    I will defend my integrity until I die.

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

I will maintain my innocence without wavering.
    My conscience is clear for as long as I live.

“May my enemy be like the wicked,
    my adversary like the unjust!

“May my enemy be punished like the wicked,
    my adversary like those who do evil.

For what hope have the godless when they are cut off,
    when God takes away their life?

For what hope do the godless have when God cuts them off
    and takes away their life?

Does God listen to their cry
    when distress comes upon them?

Will God listen to their cry
    when trouble comes upon them?

Will they find delight in the Almighty?
    Will they call on God at all times?

Can they take delight in the Almighty?
    Can they call to God at any time?

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

I will teach you about God’s power.
    I will not conceal anything concerning the Almighty.

You have all seen this yourselves.
    Why then this meaningless talk?

But you have seen all this,
    yet you say all these useless things to me.

“Here is the fate God allots to the wicked,
    the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:

“This is what the wicked will receive from God;
    this is their inheritance from the Almighty.

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

They may have many children,
    but the children will die in war or starve to death.

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

Those who survive will die of a plague,
    and not even their widows will mourn them.

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

“Evil people may have piles of money
    and may store away mounds of clothing.

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

But the righteous will wear that clothing,
    and the innocent will divide that money.

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

The wicked build houses as fragile as a spider’s web,^[a]
    as flimsy as a shelter made of branches.

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

The wicked go to bed rich
    but wake to find that all their wealth is gone.

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

Terror overwhelms them like a flood,
    and they are blown away in the storms of the night.

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

The east wind carries them away, and they are gone.
    It sweeps them away.

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

It whirls down on them without mercy.
    They struggle to flee from its power.

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