Job 26–27

Job

26Then Job replied:

²“How you have helped the powerless!^r

How you have saved the arm that is feeble!^s

³What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!

And what great insight^t you have displayed!

⁴Who has helped you utter these words?

And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?^u

⁵“The dead are in deep anguish,^v

those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

⁶The realm of the dead^w is naked before God;

Destruction^ax lies uncovered.^y

⁷He spreads out the northern skies^z over empty space;

he suspends the earth over nothing.^a

⁸He wraps up the waters^b in his clouds,^c

yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.

⁹He covers the face of the full moon,

spreading his clouds^d over it.

¹⁰He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters^e

for a boundary between light and darkness.^f

¹¹The pillars of the heavens quake,^g

aghast at his rebuke.

¹²By his power he churned up the sea;^h

by his wisdomⁱ he cut Rahab^j to pieces.

¹³By his breath the skies^k became fair;

his hand pierced the gliding serpent.^l

¹⁴And these are but the outer fringe of his works;

how faint the whisper^m we hear of him!ⁿ

Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”^o

Job’s Final Word to His Friends

27And Job continued his discourse:^p

²“As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice,^q

the Almighty,^r who has made my life bitter,^s

³as long as I have life within me,

the breath of God^t in my nostrils,

⁴my lips will not say anything wicked,

and my tongue will not utter lies.^u

⁵I will never admit you are in the right;

till I die, I will not deny my integrity.^v

⁶I will maintain my innocence^w and never let go of it;

my conscience^x will not reproach me as long as I live.^y

⁷“May my enemy be like the wicked,^z

my adversary^a like the unjust!

⁸For what hope have the godless^b when they are cut off,

when God takes away their life?^c

⁹Does God listen to their cry

when distress comes upon them?^d

¹⁰Will they find delight in the Almighty?^e

Will they call on God at all times?

¹¹“I will teach you about the power of God;

the ways^f of the Almighty I will not conceal.^g

¹²You have all seen this yourselves.

Why then this meaningless talk?

¹³“Here is the fate God allots to the wicked,

the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:^h

¹⁴However many his children,ⁱ their fate is the sword;^j

his offspring will never have enough to eat.^k

¹⁵The plague will bury those who survive him,

and their widows will not weep for them.^l

¹⁶Though he heaps up silver like dust^m

and clothes like piles of clay,ⁿ

¹⁷what he lays up^o the righteous will wear,^p

and the innocent will divide his silver.^q

¹⁸The house^r he builds is like a moth’s cocoon,^s

like a hut^t made by a watchman.

¹⁹He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more;^u

when he opens his eyes, all is gone.^v

²⁰Terrors^w overtake him like a flood;^x

a tempest snatches him away in the night.^y

²¹The east wind^z carries him off, and he is gone;^a

it sweeps him out of his place.^b

²²It hurls itself against him without mercy^c

as he flees headlong^d from its power.^e

²³It claps its hands^f in derision

and hisses him out of his place.”^g