Job 27

¹ And Job continued his solemn discourse. He said:

² I swear by the living God who denies me justice, by Shaddai who has fil ed me with bitterness,

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 wil never speak evil nor my tongue utter any lie.

⁵ Far from admitting you to be in the right, I shal maintain my integrity to my dying day.

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 meet the fate of the wicked, my adversary, the lot of the evil-doer!

⁸ For what hope does the godless have when he prays and raises his soul to God?

⁹ Is God likely to hear his cries when disaster descends on him?

¹⁰ Did he make Shaddai al his delight, calling on him at every turn?

¹¹ But I am showing you the way that God works, making no secret of Shaddai's designs.

¹² And if you had al understood them for yourselves, you would not have wasted your breath in emptywords.

¹³ This is the fate that God assigns to the wicked, the inheritance that the violent receive from Shaddai.

¹⁴ Though he have many children, it is but for the sword; his descendants will never have enough to eat.

¹⁵ Plague will bury those he leaves behind him, and their widows wil have no chance to mourn them.

¹⁶ Though he amass silver like dust and gather fine clothes like clay,

¹⁷ let him gather!-some good man wil wear them, while his silver is shared among the upright.

¹⁸ All he has built himself is a spider's web, made himself a watchman's shack.

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 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 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.