Job 27

Job’s Final Speech ¹Job continued speaking:

²“I vow by the living God, who has taken away my rights, by the Almighty who has embittered my soul— ³ As long as I live, while I have breath from God, ⁴ my lips will speak no evil, and my tongue will speak no lies. ⁵ I will never concede that you are right; I will defend my integrity until I die. ⁶ I will maintain my innocence without wavering. My conscience is clear for as long as I live.

⁷“May my enemy be punished like the wicked, my adversary like those who do evil. ⁸ For what hope do the godless have when God cuts them off and takes away their life? ⁹ Will God listen to their cry when trouble comes upon them? ¹⁰ Can they take delight in the Almighty? Can they call to God at any time? ¹¹ I will teach you about God’s power. I will not conceal anything concerning the Almighty. ¹² But you have seen all this, yet you say all these useless things to me.

¹³“This is what the wicked will receive from God; this is their inheritance from the Almighty. ¹⁴ They may have many children, but the children will die in war or starve to death. ¹⁵ Those who survive will die of a plague, and not even their widows will mourn them.

¹⁶“Evil people may have piles of money and may store away mounds of clothing. ¹⁷ But the righteous will wear that clothing, and the innocent will divide that money. ¹⁸ The wicked build houses as fragile as a spider’s web, As in Greek and Syriac versions (see also 8:14); Hebrew reads a moth. as flimsy as a shelter made of branches. ¹⁹ The wicked go to bed rich but wake to find that all their wealth is gone. ²⁰ Terror overwhelms them like a flood, and they are blown away in the storms of the night. ²¹ The east wind carries them away, and they are gone. It sweeps them away. ²² It whirls down on them without mercy. They struggle to flee from its power. ²³ But everyone jeers at them and mocks them.