Job 34:16–30

¹⁶“If you can understand, hear this;

listen to what I have to say.

¹⁷Can anyone govern who hates what is right?

How can you blame God who is both fair and powerful?

¹⁸God is the one who says to kings, ‘You are worthless,’

or to important people, ‘You are evil.’

¹⁹He is not nicer to princes than other people,

nor kinder to rich people than poor people,

because he made them all with his own hands.

²⁰They can die in a moment, in the middle of the night.

They are struck down, and then they pass away;

powerful people die without help.

²¹“God watches where people go;

he sees every step they take.

²²There is no dark place or deep shadow

where those who do evil can hide from him.

²³He does not set a time

for people to come before him for judging.

²⁴Without asking questions, God breaks powerful people into pieces

and puts others in their place.

²⁵Because God knows what people do,

he defeats them in the night, and they are crushed.

²⁶He punishes them for the evil they do

so that everyone else can watch,

²⁷because they stopped following God

and did not care about any of his ways.

²⁸The cry of the poor comes to God;

he hears the cry of the needy.

²⁹But if God keeps quiet, who can blame him?

If he hides his face, who can see him?

God still rules over both nations and persons alike.

³⁰He keeps the wicked from ruling

and from trapping others.