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Job 27
The Message
Job 27
The Message
No Place to Hide
27 1-6 Having waited for Zophar, Job now resumed his defense:
“God-Alive! He’s denied me justice!
God Almighty! He’s ruined my life!
But for as long as I draw breath,
and for as long as God breathes life into me,
I refuse to say one word that isn’t true.
I refuse to confess to any charge that’s false.
There is no way I’ll ever agree to your accusations.
I’ll not deny my integrity even if it costs me my life.
I’m holding fast to my integrity and not loosening my grip—
and, believe me, I’ll never regret it.
7-10 “Let my enemy be exposed as wicked!
Let my adversary be proven guilty!
What hope do people without God have when life is cut short?
when God puts an end to life?
Do you think God will listen to their cry for help
when disaster hits?
What interest have they ever shown in the Almighty?
Have they ever been known to pray before?
11-12 “I’ve given you a clear account of God in action,
suppressed nothing regarding God Almighty.
The evidence is right before you. You can all see it for yourselves,
so why do you keep talking nonsense?
13-23 “I’ll quote your own words back to you:
“‘This is how God treats the wicked,
this is what evil people can expect from God Almighty:
Their children—all of them—will die violent deaths;
they’ll never have enough bread to put on the table.
They’ll be wiped out by the plague,
and none of the widows will shed a tear when they’re gone.
Even if they make a lot of money
and are resplendent in the latest fashions,
It’s the good who will end up wearing the clothes
and the decent who will divide up the money.
They build elaborate houses
that won’t survive a single winter.
They go to bed wealthy
and wake up poor.
Terrors pour in on them like flash floods—
a tornado snatches them away in the middle of the night,
A cyclone sweeps them up—gone!
Not a trace of them left, not even a footprint.
Catastrophes relentlessly pursue them;
they run this way and that, but there’s no place to hide—
Pummeled by the weather,
blown to smithereens by the storm.’”
Job 27
New International Version
Job 27
New International Version
Job’s Final Word to His Friends
27 And Job continued his discourse:(A)
2 “As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice,(B)
the Almighty,(C) who has made my life bitter,(D)
3 as long as I have life within me,
the breath of God(E) in my nostrils,
4 my lips will not say anything wicked,
and my tongue will not utter lies.(F)
5 I will never admit you are in the right;
till I die, I will not deny my integrity.(G)
6 I will maintain my innocence(H) and never let go of it;
my conscience(I) will not reproach me as long as I live.(J)
7 “May my enemy be like the wicked,(K)
my adversary(L) like the unjust!
8 For what hope have the godless(M) when they are cut off,
when God takes away their life?(N)
9 Does God listen to their cry
when distress comes upon them?(O)
10 Will they find delight in the Almighty?(P)
Will they call on God at all times?
11 “I will teach you about the power of God;
the ways(Q) of the Almighty I will not conceal.(R)
12 You have all seen this yourselves.
Why then this meaningless talk?
13 “Here is the fate God allots to the wicked,
the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:(S)
14 However many his children,(T) their fate is the sword;(U)
his offspring will never have enough to eat.(V)
15 The plague will bury those who survive him,
and their widows will not weep for them.(W)
16 Though he heaps up silver like dust(X)
and clothes like piles of clay,(Y)
17 what he lays up(Z) the righteous will wear,(AA)
and the innocent will divide his silver.(AB)
18 The house(AC) he builds is like a moth’s cocoon,(AD)
like a hut(AE) made by a watchman.
19 He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more;(AF)
when he opens his eyes, all is gone.(AG)
20 Terrors(AH) overtake him like a flood;(AI)
a tempest snatches him away in the night.(AJ)
21 The east wind(AK) carries him off, and he is gone;(AL)
it sweeps him out of his place.(AM)
22 It hurls itself against him without mercy(AN)
as he flees headlong(AO) from its power.(AP)
23 It claps its hands(AQ) in derision
and hisses him out of his place.”(AR)
The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
New International Version (NIV) 
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NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.