| 1 | Job again took up his discourse and said, |
| 2 | As God lives, Who has taken away my right
and
denied me justice, and the Almighty, Who has vexed
and
embittered my life, |
| 3 | As long as my life is still whole within me, and the breath of God is [yet] in my nostrils, |
| 4 | My lips shall not speak untruth, nor shall my tongue utter deceit. |
| 5 | God forbid that I should justify you—saying you are right [in your accusations against me]; till I die, I will not put away my integrity from me. |
| 6 | My uprightness
and
my right standing with God I hold fast and will not let them go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days
and
it shall not reproach me as long as I live. |
| 7 | Let my enemy be as the wicked, and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous. |
| 8 | For what is the hope of the godless
and
polluted, even though he has gained [in this world], when God cuts him off
and
takes away his life? |
| 9 | Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him? |
| 10 | Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times? |
| 11 | I will teach you regarding the hand
and
handiwork of God; that which is with the Almighty [God’s actual treatment of the wicked man] will I not conceal. |
| 12 | Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain [cherishing foolish notions]? |
| 13 | This [which I am about to tell] is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage which oppressors shall receive from the Almighty: |
| 14 | If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring will not have sufficient bread. |
| 15 | Those who survive him, [the pestilence] will bury, and [their] widows will make no lamentation. |
| 16 | Though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up clothing like clay, |
| 17 | He may prepare it, but the just will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver. |
| 18 | He builds his house like a moth
or
a spider, like a booth which a watchman makes [to last for a season]. |
| 19 | [The wicked] will lie down rich, but does it not again; he opens his eyes, and [his wealth] is gone. |
| 20 | Terrors overtake him like a [suddenly loosened] flood; a windstorm steals him away in the night. |
| 21 | The east wind lifts him up, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place. |
| 22 | For [God and the storm] hurl at him without pity
and
unsparingly [their thunderbolts of wrath]; he flees in haste before His power. |
| 23 | [God causes] men to clap their hands at him [in malignant joy] and hiss him out of his place. |