-
āāJob⬠ā27:1ā-ā¬23⬠āMSGā¬ā¬
[1-6] Having waited for Zophar, Job now resumed his defense: āGod-Alive! Heās denied me justice! God Almighty! Heās 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 isnāt true. I refuse to confess to any charge thatās false. There is no way Iāll ever agree to your accusations. Iāll not deny my integrity even if it costs me my life. Iām holding fast to my integrity and not loosening my gripā and, believe me, Iāll never regret it. [7-10] āLet 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] āIāve 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] āIāll quote your own words back to you: āāThis is how God treats the wicked, this is what evil people can expect from God Almighty: Their childrenāall of themāwill die violent deaths; theyāll never have enough bread to put on the table. Theyāll be wiped out by the plague, and none of the widows will shed a tear when theyāre gone. Even if they make a lot of money and are resplendent in the latest fashions, Itās the good who will end up wearing the clothes and the decent who will divide up the money. They build elaborate houses that wonāt survive a single winter. They go to bed wealthy and wake up poor. Terrors pour in on them like flash floodsā a tornado snatches them away in the middle of the night, A cyclone sweeps them upāgone! Not a trace of them left, not even a footprint. Catastrophes relentlessly pursue them; they run this way and that, but thereās no place to hideā Pummeled by the weather, blown to smithereens by the storm.āā

