Job 26–27

Job’s Reply

26Job replied,

²“Bildad, you haven’t helped people who aren’t strong!

You haven’t saved people who are weak!

³You haven’t offered advice to those who aren’t wise!

In fact, you haven’t understood anything at all!

⁴Who helped you say those things?

Whose spirit was speaking through you?

⁵“The spirits of the dead are suffering greatly.

So are those that are under the waters.

And so are all those that live in them.

⁶Death is naked in the sight of God.

The Grave lies open in front of him.

⁷He spreads out the northern skies over empty space.

He hangs the earth over nothing.

⁸He wraps up water in his clouds.

They are heavy, but they don’t burst.

⁹He covers the face of the full moon.

He spreads his clouds over it.

¹⁰He marks out the place where the sky meets the sea.

He marks out the boundary between light and darkness.

¹¹The pillars of the heavens shake.

They are terrified when his anger blazes out.

¹²With his power he stirred up the oceans.

In his wisdom he cut the sea monster Rahab to pieces.

¹³His breath made the skies bright and clear.

His hand wounded the serpent that glides through the sea.

¹⁴Those are only on the edges of what he does.

They are only the soft whispers that we hear from him.

So who can understand how very powerful he is?”

27Job continued to speak. He said,

²“God hasn’t treated me fairly.

The Mighty One has made my spirit bitter.

You can be sure that God lives.

And here’s something else you can be sure of.

³As long as I have life

and God gives me breath,

⁴my mouth won’t say evil things.

My lips won’t tell lies.

⁵I’ll never admit you people are right.

Until I die, I’ll say I’m telling the truth.

⁶I’ll continue to say I’m right.

I’ll never let go of that.

I won’t blame myself as long as I live.

⁷“May my enemies suffer like sinful people!

May my attackers be punished like those who aren’t fair!

⁸What hope do ungodly people have when their lives are cut off?

What hope do they have when God takes away their lives?

⁹God won’t listen to their cry

when trouble comes on them.

¹⁰They won’t take delight in the Mighty One.

They’ll never call out to God.

¹¹“I’ll teach all of you about God’s power.

I won’t hide the things the Mighty One does.

¹²You have seen those things yourselves.

So why do you continue your useless talk?

¹³“Here’s what God does to sinful people.

Here’s what those who are mean receive from the Mighty One.

¹⁴All of their children will be killed with swords.

They’ll never have enough to eat.

¹⁵A plague will kill those who are left alive.

The widows of sinful men

won’t even sob over their own children.

¹⁶Sinners might store up silver like dust

and clothes like piles of clay.

¹⁷But people who do what is right will wear those clothes.

People who haven’t done anything wrong

will divide up that silver.

¹⁸The house an evil person builds is like a moth’s cocoon.

It’s like a hut that’s made by someone on guard duty.

¹⁹Sinful people lie down wealthy, but their wealth is taken away.

When they open their eyes, everything is gone.

²⁰Terrors sweep over them like a flood.

A storm takes them away during the night.

²¹The east wind carries them off, and they are gone.

It sweeps them out of their houses.

²²It blows against them without mercy.

They try to escape from its power.

²³It claps its hands and makes fun of them.

It hisses them out of their houses.