Job 27

Job Continues: I Will Maintain My Integrity

¹And Job again took up his discourse, and said:

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

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,

and my tongue will not utter deceit.

⁵Far be it from me to say that you are right;

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

⁶I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;

my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

⁷“Let my enemy be as the wicked,

and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

⁸For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off,

when God takes away his life?

⁹Will God hear his cry

when distress comes upon him?

¹⁰Will he take delight in the Almighty?

Will he call upon God at all times?

¹¹I will teach you concerning the hand of God;

what is with the Almighty I will not conceal.

¹²Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves;

why then have you become altogether vain?

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

and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:

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

and his descendants have not enough bread.

¹⁵Those who survive him the pestilence buries,

and his widows do not weep.

¹⁶Though he heap up silver like dust,

and pile up clothing like clay,

¹⁷he may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it,

and the innocent will divide the silver.

¹⁸He builds his house like a moth's,

like a booth that a watchman makes.

¹⁹He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more;

he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone.

²⁰Terrors overtake him like a flood;

in the night a whirlwind carries him off.

²¹The east wind lifts him up and he is gone;

it sweeps him out of his place.

²²It hurls at him without pity;

he flees from its power in headlong flight.

²³It claps its hands at him

and hisses at him from its place.