Job 34:16–30

God Is Fair

¹⁶“If you understand, listen to this. 

Open your ears to my words! 

¹⁷Should anyone who hates justice be allowed to govern? 

Will you condemn the one who is righteous and mighty? 

¹⁸Should anyone ⸤even⸥ say to a king, 

‘You good-for-nothing scoundrel!’ 

or to nobles, ‘You wicked people!’ 

¹⁹The one who is righteous and mighty 

does not grant special favors to princes 

or prefer important people over poor people 

because his hands made them all. 

²⁰They die suddenly in the middle of the night. 

People have seizures and pass away. 

Mighty people are taken away but not by human hands. 

²¹God’s eyes are on a person’s ways. 

He sees all his steps. 

²²There’s no darkness or deep shadow 

where troublemakers can hide. 

²³He doesn’t have to set a time for a person 

in order to bring him to divine judgment. 

²⁴He breaks mighty people into pieces without examining them 

and puts others in their places. 

²⁵He knows what they do, 

so he overthrows them at night, and they’re crushed. 

²⁶In return for their evil, he strikes them in public, 

²⁷because they turned away from following him 

and didn’t consider any of his ways. 

²⁸They forced the poor to cry out to him, 

and he hears the cry of those who suffer. 

²⁹If he keeps quiet, who can condemn him? 

If he hides his face, who can see him 

whether it is a nation or a single person? 

³⁰⸤He does this⸥ so that godless people cannot rule 

and so that they cannot trap people.