Job 27

1Job continued to speak. And this is what he said.

2‘God has not been fair to me.

And God, who can do anything, has made my life to be very sad.

3That is what my life has been like.

But while I am alive, I will promise this to God.

4I will always say things that are true.

And I will always be honest.

5I will never agree that you are right.

Until my death, I will never say things that are wrong.

6I will continue to be honest.

During all of my life, my conscience will never say anything bad about me.

7My enemies are bad people.

I pray that God will punish them.

8A bad person cannot hope to have a happy life.

In the end, God will cause him to die.

9God does not hear him when he asks for God’s help.

10He should always ask God to show him the right way to live.

But because he does not do that, he does not enjoy his life.

11I will teach you about the power of God.

And I will explain to you the things that God will do to bad people.

12You have all seen this yourselves.

So you should not still say things that mean nothing.

13I will tell you what God will do to a bad person.

I will tell you how God will punish him.

14A bad person may have many children, but they will all die.

Some will die in the war. Other people will die because they do not have enough food to eat.

15Some will live for a longer time but, in the end, an illness will kill them.

And their wives will not weep when they are dead.

16A bad man may have more money than he can count.

And he may have more clothes than he could ever wear.

17But, in the end, a good man will wear those clothes.

And an honest man will spend all that money.

18The house of a bad man will not be any stronger than the home of an insect.

Nor will it be any better than a worker’s hut.

19A bad man may be very rich.

But soon he will find that all his money has gone.

20He will become afraid as quickly as a flood comes.

A storm will come in the night and it will kill him.

21The east wind takes him away, and he is gone.

It removes him from his home.

22It is so strong that he cannot fight against it.

He can only do one thing. He can try to run away from it.

23People will see a bad man leave his home.

And God will make them happy when they see that.’