Job Continues
I Am Desperate
1 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.
7 I pray that my enemies
will suffer no less
than the wicked.
8 Such people are hopeless,
and God All-Powerful
will cut them down,
9 without listening
when they beg for mercy.
10 And that is what God should do,
because they don't like him
or ever pray.
11 Now I will explain in detail
what God All-Powerful does.
12 All of you have seen these things
for yourselves.
So you have no excuse.
How God Treats the Wicked
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.
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.
Job
1-2 I swear by the living Almighty God,
who refuses me justice and makes my life bitter—
3 as long as God gives me breath,
4 my lips will never say anything evil,
my tongue will never tell a lie.
5 I will never say that you men are right;
I will insist on my innocence to my dying day.
6 I will never give up my claim to be right;
my conscience is clear.
7 May all who oppose me and fight against me
be punished like the wicked and the unrighteous.
8 What hope is there for the godless
in the hour when God demands their life?
9 When trouble comes, will God hear their cries?
10 They should have desired the joy he gives;
they should have constantly prayed to him.
11 Let me teach you how great is God's power,
and explain what Almighty God has planned.
12 But no, after all, you have seen for yourselves;
so why do you talk such nonsense?
[Zophar]
13 This is how Almighty God
punishes wicked, violent people.
14 They may have many sons,
but all will be killed in war;
their children never have enough to eat.
15 Those who survive will die from disease,
and even their widows will not mourn their death.
16 The wicked may have too much silver to count
and more clothes than anyone needs;
17 but some good person will wear the clothes,
and someone honest will get the silver.
18 The wicked build houses like a spider's web
or like the hut of a slave guarding the fields.
19 One last time they will lie down rich,
and when they wake up, they will find their wealth gone.
20 Terror will strike like a sudden flood;
a wind in the night will blow them away;
21 the east wind will sweep them from their homes;
22 it will blow down on them without pity
while they try their best to escape.
23 The wind howls at them as they run,
frightening them with destructive power.