Job 27

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	NEW JERUSALEM
	1 And Job continued his solemn discourse. He said:
2 As God lives, who withholds my deserts, the Almighty, who has made bitter my soul,	2 I swear by the living God who denies me justice, by Shaddai who has fil ed me with bitterness,
3 So long as I still have life in me and the breath of God is in my nostrils,	3 that as long as a shred of life is left in me, and the breath of God breathes in my nostrils,
4 My lips shall not speak falsehood, nor my tongue utter deceit!	4 my lips wil never speak evil nor my tongue utter any lie.
5 Far be it from me to account you right; till I die I will not renounce my innocence.	5 Far from admitting you to be in the right, I shal maintain my integrity to my dying day.
6 My justice I maintain and I will not relinquish it; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.	6 I take my stand on my uprightness, I shal not stir: in my heart I need not be ashamed of my days.
7 Let my enemy be as the wicked and my adversary as the unjust!	7 Let my enemy meet the fate of the wicked, my adversary, the lot of the evil-doer!
8 For what can the impious man expect when he is cut off, when God requires his life?	8 For what hope does the godless have when he prays and raises his soul to God?
9 Will God then attend to his cry when calamity comes upon him?	9 Is God likely to hear his cries when disaster descends on him?
10 Will he then delight in the Almighty and call upon him constantly?	10 Did he make Shaddai al his delight, calling on him at every turn?
11 I will teach you the manner of God's dealings, and the way of the Almighty I will not conceal.	11 But I am showing you the way that God works, making no secret of Shaddai's designs.
12 Behold, you yourselves have all seen it; why then do you spend yourselves in idle words!	12 And if you had al understood them for yourselves, you would not have wasted your breath in emptywords.
13 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the inheritance an oppressor receives from the Almighty:	13 This is the fate that God assigns to the wicked, the inheritance that the violent receive from Shaddai.
14 Though his children be many, the sword is their destiny. His offspring shall not be filled with bread.	14 Though he have many children, it is but for the sword; his descendants will never have enough to eat.
15 His survivors, when they die, shall have no burial, and their widows shall not be mourned.	15 Plague will bury those he leaves behind him, and their widows wil have no chance to mourn them.
16 Though he heap up silver like dust and store away mounds of clothing,	16 Though he amass silver like dust and gather fine clothes like clay,
17 What he has stored the just man shall wear, and the innocent shall divide the silver.	17 let him gather!-some good man wil wear them, while his silver is shared among the upright.
18 He builds his house as of cobwebs, or like a booth put up by the vine-keeper.	18 All he has built himself is a spider's web, made himself a watchman's shack.
19 He lies down a rich man, one last time; he opens his eyes and nothing remains to him.	19 He goes to bed rich, but never again: he wakes to find it has al gone. As drought and heat makesnow disappear, so does Sheol anyone who has sinned.
20 Terrors rush upon him by day; at night the tempest carries him off.	20 Terror assails him in broad daylight, and at night a whirlwind sweeps him off. The womb that shapedhim forgets him and his name is recal ed no longer. Thus wickedness is blasted as a tree is struck.
21 The storm wind seizes him and he disappears; it sweeps him out of his place.	21 An east wind picks him up and drags him away, snatching him up from his homestead. He used to il -treat the childless woman and show no kindness to the widow.
	22 Pitilessly he is turned into a target, and forced to flee from the hands that menace him. But he wholays mighty hold on tyrants rises up to take away a life that seemed secure.
	23 His downfall is greeted with applause, he is hissed wherever he goes. He is no more than a strawfloating on the water, his estate is accursed throughout the land, nobody goes near his vineyard. He let him buildhis hopes on false security, but kept his eyes on every step he took.
	24 He had his time of glory, now he vanishes, wilting like the saltwort once it is picked, and withering likean ear of corn.