Job 27

Contemporary English Version

27 Job said:
² I am desperate because
God All-Powerful refuses
    to do what is right.
As surely as God lives,
³ and while he gives me breath,
⁴     I will tell only the truth.
⁵ Until the day I die,
I will refuse to do wrong
    by saying you are right,
⁶ because each day my conscience
    agrees that I am innocent.

¹³ Here is how God All-Powerful
treats those who are wicked
    and brutal.
¹⁴ They may have many children,
but most of them will go hungry
    or suffer a violent death.
¹⁵ Others will die of disease,
and their widows
    won't be able to weep.
¹⁶ The wicked may collect riches
and clothes in abundance
    as easily as clay.
¹⁷ But God's people will wear
clothes taken from them
    and divide up their riches.
¹⁸ No homes built by the wicked
will outlast a cocoon
    or a shack.
¹⁹ Those sinners may go to bed rich,
    but they will wake up poor.^[a]
20 Terror will strike at night
    like a flood or a storm.
²¹ Then a scorching wind
    will sweep them away
²² without showing mercy,
    as they try to escape.
²³ At last, the wind will celebrate
    because they are gone.