1 JOB CONTINUED:

2 »As God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty? Who has made me taste bitterness?

3 »As long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils,

4 my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will not utter deceit.

5 »I will not admit you are in the right. Until I die, I will not deny my integrity!

6 »I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it! My conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.

7 »May my enemies be like the wicked, my adversaries like the unjust!

8 »What hope doe the godless have when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

9 »Does God listen to his cry when distress comes upon him?

10 »Will he find delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?

11 »I will teach you about the power of God; the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.

12 »You have all seen this yourselves. Why then this meaningless talk?

13 »Here is the fate God accords the wicked. This is the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:

14 »No mater how many his children, their fate is the sword. His offspring will never have enough to eat.

15 »The plague will bury those who survive him. Their widows will not weep for them.

16 »Though he heaps up silver like dust and clothes like piles of clay,

17 what he lays up the righteous will wear, and the innocent will divide his silver.

18 »The house he builds is like a moth’s cocoon, like a hut made by a watchman.

19 »He lies down wealthy and wakes up and all is gone.

20 Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest snatches him away in the night.

21 »The east wind carries him off. He is gone and it sweeps him out of his place.

22 »It hurls itself against him without mercy as he flees headlong from its power.

23 »Men will clap their hands in derision ridicule and hiss him out of his place.