1JOB AGAIN took up his discourse and said,
2As God lives, Who has taken away my right and denied me justice, and the Almighty, Who has vexed and embittered my life,
3As long as my life is still whole within me, and the breath of God is [yet] in my nostrils,
4My lips shall not speak untruth, nor shall my tongue utter deceit.
5God 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.
6My 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.
7Let my enemy be as the wicked, and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.
8For 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?
9Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him?
10Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?
11I 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.
12Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain [cherishing foolish notions]?
13This [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:
14If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring will not have sufficient bread.
15Those who survive him, [the pestilence] will bury, and [their] widows will make no lamentation.
16Though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up clothing like clay,
17He may prepare it, but the just will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver.
18He builds his house like a moth or a spider, like a booth which a watchman makes [to last for a season].
19[The wicked] will lie down rich, but does it not again; he opens his eyes, and [his wealth] is gone.
20Terrors overtake him like a [suddenly loosened] flood; a windstorm steals him away in the night.
21The east wind lifts him up, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.
22For [God and the storm] hurl at him without pity and unsparingly [their thunderbolts of wrath]; he flees in haste before His power.
23[God causes] men to clap their hands at him [in malignant joy] and hiss him out of his place.