What Hope has the Godless?
27 And Job took up his discourse again, saying:
2 “As God lives, who has deprived me of justice,
Shaddai who has made my soul bitter,
3 as long as my breath is still in me,
the Ruach of God in my nostrils,
4 my lips will speak no injustice,
nor will my tongue mutter deceit.
5 Far be it from me to say that you are just;
until I die, I will not set aside my integrity!
6 I will maintain my righteousness, and not let it go;
my conscience will not reproach me for any of my days.
7 “May my enemy be like the wicked
my enemy like the unrighteous.
8 For what hope has the godless,
when he is cut off,
when God takes his soul?[a]
9 Will God hear his cry
when trouble comes upon him?
10 Will he delight in Shaddai?
Will he call upon God at all times?
11 I will teach you about the hand of God;
I will not conceal the ways of Shaddai.
12 Look, you have all seen this yourselves.
Why then this meaningless talk?
13 “This is the portion of a wicked man with God,
the inheritance that ruthless men receive from Shaddai.
14 If his children increase—
it is for the sword.
His offspring will never
have enough to eat.
15 Those who survive him will be buried by the plague,
and their widows will not weep.
16 Though he piles up silver like dust,
and clothing like heaps of mortar,
17 what he lays up, the righteous will wear,
and the upright will divide the silver.
18 The house he built is like a moth’s cocoon,
like a hut made for a watchman.
19 “He lies down wealthy,
but will gather no more.
When he opens his eyes,
all is gone!
20 Terrors overtake him like a flood;
a storm sweeps him away at night.
21 The east wind picks him up and he is gone;
it sweeps him out of his place.
22 It hurls itself at him without pity
as he flees headlong from its hand.
23 It claps its hands at him in derision,
and hisses him out of his place.”