Job 27

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;

until 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“May my enemy be like the wicked,

and may my opponent be like the unrighteous.

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

when God takes away their lives?

⁹Will God hear their cry

when trouble comes upon them?

¹⁰Will they take delight in the Almighty?

Will they call upon God at all times?

¹¹I will teach you concerning the hand of God;

that which is with the Almighty I will not conceal.

¹²All of you have seen it yourselves;

why then have you become altogether vain?

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

and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:

¹⁴If their children are multiplied, it is for the sword;

and their offspring have not enough to eat.

¹⁵Those who survive them the pestilence buries,

and their widows make no lamentation.

¹⁶Though they heap up silver like dust,

and pile up clothing like clay—

¹⁷they may pile it up, but the just will wear it,

and the innocent will divide the silver.

¹⁸They build their houses like nests,

like booths made by sentinels of the vineyard.

¹⁹They go to bed with wealth, but will do so no more;

they open their eyes, and it is gone.

²⁰Terrors overtake them like a flood;

in the night a whirlwind carries them off.

²¹The east wind lifts them up and they are gone;

it sweeps them out of their place.

²²It hurls at them without pity;

they flee from its power in headlong flight.

²³It claps its hands at them,

and hisses at them from its place.