Job Continues

I Am Desperate

1Job said:

2I am desperate because

God All-Powerful refuses

to do what is right.

As surely as God lives,

3and while he gives me breath,

4I will tell only the truth.

5Until the day I die,

I will refuse to do wrong

by saying you are right,

6because each day my conscience

agrees that I am innocent.

7I pray that my enemies

will suffer no less

than the wicked.

8Such people are hopeless,

and God All-Powerful

will cut them down,

9without listening

when they beg for mercy.

10And that is what God should do,

because they don't like him

or ever pray.

11Now I will explain in detail

what God All-Powerful does.

12All of you have seen these things

for yourselves.

So you have no excuse.

How God Treats the Wicked

13Here is how God All-Powerful

treats those who are wicked

and brutal.

14They may have many children,

but most of them will go hungry

or suffer a violent death.

15Others will die of disease,

and their widows

won't be able to weep.

16The wicked may collect riches

and clothes in abundance

as easily as clay.

17But God's people will wear

clothes taken from them

and divide up their riches.

18No homes built by the wicked

will outlast a cocoon

or a shack.

19Those sinners may go to bed rich,

but they will wake up poor.+

20Terror will strike at night

like a flood or a storm.

21Then a scorching wind

will sweep them away

22without showing mercy,

as they try to escape.

23At last, the wind will celebrate

because they are gone.