Job 34:16–30

¹⁶“If you have understanding, hear this;

Listen to the sound of my words:

^17lShould one who hates justice govern?

Will you ^mcondemn Him who is most just?

¹⁸ⁿIs it fitting to say to a king, ‘You are worthless,’

And to nobles, ‘You are wicked’?

¹⁹Yet He ^ois not partial to princes,

Nor does He regard the rich more than the poor;

For ^pthey are all the work of His hands.

²⁰In a moment they die, ^qin the middle of the night;

The people are shaken and pass away;

The mighty are taken away without a hand.

²¹“For ^rHis eyes are on the ways of man,

And He sees all his steps.

^22sThere is no darkness nor shadow of death

Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.

²³For He need not further consider a man,

That he should go before God in judgment.

^24tHe breaks in pieces mighty men without inquiry,

And sets others in their place.

²⁵Therefore He knows their works;

He overthrows them in the night,

And they are crushed.

²⁶He strikes them as wicked men

In the open sight of others,

²⁷Because they ^uturned back from Him,

And ^vwould not consider any of His ways,

²⁸So that they ^wcaused the cry of the poor to come to Him;

For He ^xhears the cry of the afflicted.

²⁹When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble?

And when He hides His face, who then can see Him,

Whether it is against a nation or a man alone?—

³⁰That the hypocrite should not reign,

Lest the people be ensnared.