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26 Then Job answered,

“How have you helped him who is without power!
    How have you saved the arm that has no strength!
How have you counseled him who has no wisdom,
    and plentifully declared sound knowledge!
To whom have you uttered words?
    Whose spirit came out of you?

“The departed spirits tremble,
    those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
Sheol[a] is naked before God,
    and Abaddon[b] has no covering.
He stretches out the north over empty space,
    and hangs the earth on nothing.
He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,
    and the cloud is not burst under them.
He encloses the face of his throne,
    and spreads his cloud on it.
10 He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters,
    and to the confines of light and darkness.
11 The pillars of heaven tremble
    and are astonished at his rebuke.
12 He stirs up the sea with his power,
    and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.
13 By his Spirit the heavens are garnished.
    His hand has pierced the swift serpent.
14 Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways.
    How small a whisper do we hear of him!
    But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

27 Job again took up his parable, and said,

“As God lives, who has taken away my right,
    the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter
(for the length of my life is still in me,
    and the spirit of God is in my nostrils);
surely my lips will not speak unrighteousness,
    neither will my tongue utter deceit.
Far be it from me that I should justify you.
    Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go.
    My heart will not reproach me so long as I live.

“Let my enemy be as the wicked.
    Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off,
    when God takes away his life?
Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?
10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty,
    and call on God at all times?
11 I will teach you about the hand of God.
    I will not conceal that which is with the Almighty.
12 Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves;
    why then have you become altogether vain?

13 “This is the portion of a wicked man with God,
    the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.
14 If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword.
    His offspring will not be satisfied with bread.
15 Those who remain of him will be buried in death.
    His widows will make no lamentation.
16 Though he heap up silver as the dust,
    and prepare clothing as the clay;
17 he may prepare it, but the just will put it on,
    and the innocent will divide the silver.
18 He builds his house as the moth,
    as a booth which the watchman makes.
19 He lies down rich, but he will not do so again.
    He opens his eyes, and he is not.
20 Terrors overtake him like waters.
    A storm steals him away in the night.
21 The east wind carries him away, and he departs.
    It sweeps him out of his place.
22 For it hurls at him, and does not spare,
    as he flees away from his hand.
23 Men will clap their hands at him,
    and will hiss him out of his place.

Footnotes

  1. 26:6 Sheol is the place of the dead.
  2. 26:6 Abaddon means Destroyer.