CHAPTER 27
1And Job again took up his theme and he said:
2 By God, Who denied me justice
and by Shaddai Who embittered my life,
3as long as my breath is within me,
and God’s spirit in my nostrils,
4my lips will never speak evil,
nor my tongue ever utter deceit.
5Far be it from me to declare you right,
till I breathe my last I will not renounce my virtue.
6To my rightness I cling, I will not let go,
my heart has not caused reproach all my days.
7Let my enemy be deemed a wicked man
and my adversary a wrongdoer.
[And Zophar the Naamathite spoke up and he said:]
8 For what hope has the tainted to profit,
when God takes away his life?
9Will God hear his scream
when disaster befalls him?
10Will he delight in Shaddai,
will he call upon God at all times?
11 Let me teach you with God’s own force,
what is with Shaddai I will not conceal.
12 Look, all of you have beheld it,
and why do you spew empty breath?
13This is the wicked man’s share with God,
the portion that oppressors take from Shaddai.
14If his sons be many, it is for the sword,
and his offspring will go without bread.
15 His survivors will be buried in the death-plague,
and his widows will not keen.
16Should he heap up silver like dust
and like mud lay up apparel,
17he’ll lay up, and the just man will wear it,
and the silver the blameless share out.
18He will build his house like the moth,
like a shack that a watchman puts up.
19Rich he lies down— it’s not taken away.
He opens up his eyes and it’s gone.
20Terror will take him like water;
by night the storm snatches him up.
21 The east wind bears him off and he’s gone,
it sweeps him away from his place.
22It flings itself on him unsparing,
from its power he strives to flee.
23 It claps its hands against him,
and hisses at him from its place.