Job 27

Job Maintains His Integrity

²⁷Job again took up his discourse and said:^*

²“As God lives, who has taken away my right,

and the Almighty,^f who has made my soul bitter,^*

³as long as my breath is in me

and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,

⁴my lips will not speak falsehood,

and my tongue will not utter deceit.^*

⁵Far be it from me to say that you are right;

until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.^*

⁶I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;

my heart will not reproach me as long as I live.^*

⁷“May my enemy be like the wicked,

and may my opponent be like the unrighteous.

⁸For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts them off,

when God takes away their lives?^*

⁹Will God hear their cry

when trouble comes upon them?^*

¹⁰Will they take delight in the Almighty?^g

Will they call upon God at all times?^*

¹¹I will teach you concerning the hand of God;

that which is with the Almighty^h I will not conceal.

¹²All of you have seen it yourselves;

why then have you become altogether vain?

¹³“This is the portion of the wicked with God

and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:^i*

¹⁴If their children are multiplied, it is for the sword,

and their offspring have not enough to eat.^*

¹⁵Those who survive them the pestilence buries,

and their widows make no lamentation.^*

¹⁶Though they heap up silver like dust

and pile up clothing like clay,^*

¹⁷they may pile it up, but the just will wear it,

and the innocent will divide the silver.^*

¹⁸They build their houses like nests,

like booths made by sentinels of the vineyard.

¹⁹They go to bed with wealth but will do so no more;

they open their eyes, and it is gone.^*

²⁰Terrors overtake them like a flood;

in the night a whirlwind carries them off.^*

²¹The east wind lifts them up, and they are gone;

it sweeps them out of their place.^*

²²It^j hurls at them without pity;

they flee from its^k power in headlong flight.^*

²³It^l claps its^m hands at them

and hisses at them from itsⁿ place.^*