27:1 JOB AGAIN took up his discourse and said, |
27:2 As God lives, Who has taken away my right {and} denied me justice, and the Almighty, Who has vexed {and} embittered my life, |
27:3 As long as my life is still whole within me, and the breath of God is [yet] in my nostrils, |
27:4 My lips shall not speak untruth, nor shall my tongue utter deceit. |
27:5 God forbid that I should justify you--saying you are right [in your accusations against me]; till I die, I will not put away my integrity from me. |
27:6 My uprightness {and} my right standing with God I hold fast and will not let them go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days {and} it shall not reproach me as long as I live. |
27:7 Let my enemy be as the wicked, and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous. |
27:8 For what is the hope of the godless {and} polluted, even though he has gained [in this world], when God cuts him off {and} takes away his life? |
27:9 Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him? |
27:10 Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times? |
27:11 I will teach you regarding the hand {and} handiwork of God; that which is with the Almighty [God's actual treatment of the wicked man] will I not conceal. |
27:12 Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain [cherishing foolish notions]? |
27:13 This [which I am about to tell] is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage which oppressors shall receive from the Almighty: |
27:14 If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring will not have sufficient bread. |
27:15 Those who survive him, [the pestilence] will bury, and [their] widows will make no lamentation. |
27:16 Though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up clothing like clay, |
27:17 He may prepare it, but the just will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver. |
27:18 He builds his house like a moth {or} a spider, like a booth which a watchman makes [to last for a season]. |
27:19 [The wicked] will lie down rich, but does it not again; he opens his eyes, and [his wealth] is gone. |
27:20 Terrors overtake him like a [suddenly loosened] flood; a windstorm steals him away in the night. |
27:21 The east wind lifts him up, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place. |
27:22 For [God and the storm] hurl at him without pity {and} unsparingly [their thunderbolts of wrath]; he flees in haste before His power. |
27:23 [God causes] men to clap their hands at him [in malignant joy] and hiss him out of his place. |