Job 27

Job kept on with his speech. He said:

1Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,

Note"Parable" here does not mean a story with a moral. The Hebrew word (mashal) covers any weighty, formal, poetic speech, a saying, a taunt, a discourse. The phrase "continued his parable" signals that Job takes up his set speech again; his three friends have been answering him in turn, and this is his reply resuming.

2"As surely as God lives, the God who has refused me justice, the Almighty who has made my life bitter…

2As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;

Note"As God liveth" is the standard Hebrew oath formula, swearing by the life of God, the most binding oath a person could take. The wording is pointed: Job swears by the very God he is accusing in the same breath. "Taken away my judgment" is courtroom language: refused him his legal case, denied him a hearing. Job speaks throughout as a man who wants a trial and cannot get one.

3as long as I still have breath in me, and God's breath is in my nose,

3All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;

NoteThe Hebrew word here (ruach) means breath, wind, and spirit all at once, so "the spirit of God is in my nostrils" is also simply "the breath God gave me is still in my nose", the ordinary Hebrew way of saying a person is still alive, echoing the picture of God breathing life into a human being's nostrils.

4my lips will not say anything evil, and my tongue will not say anything false.

4My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.

5I will never agree that you men are right. Until the day I die I will not give up my claim that I have done nothing wrong.

5God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.

Note"God forbid" translates a Hebrew idiom that literally means "far be it from me", a strong refusal that does not actually name God. "Justify you" is a legal term: to declare someone to be in the right, the way a judge rules in a party's favor. Job refuses to give his friends that verdict.

6I am holding on to the fact that I am in the right, and I will not let go of it. My own conscience will not accuse me for as long as I live.

6My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

Note"Righteousness" here is not moral perfection but being in the right in a dispute, the innocence of a defendant whose case holds up. "My heart shall not reproach me" uses "heart" in the Hebrew sense of the mind and inner judgment, close to what we call conscience.

7Let my enemy end up like an evil man, and let the one who attacks me end up like a man who does wrong.

7Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

NoteThis is worded as a curse or wish, the ancient way of protesting one's innocence: may whoever accuses me end up receiving the fate that actually belongs to the guilty. It is a claim about who is in the wrong, put in the form of a prayer against an opponent.

8For what hope does a godless man have, even if he has made a profit, when God takes his life away?

8For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?

Note"Hypocrite" in 1611 English translated a Hebrew word (chanef) meaning godless, irreligious, morally polluted. It does not mean someone pretending to be better than he is; the modern sense of "hypocrite" developed later.

9Will God listen to him when he cries out and trouble comes on him?

9Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?

10Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call on God at all times?

10Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God?

11I will teach you about God's power. I will not hide from you how the Almighty works.

11I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.

Note"By the hand of God" uses "hand" in its common Hebrew sense of power or working, Job is saying he will teach them about how God exercises power, not about God's literal hand.

12Look, all of you have seen this for yourselves. So why do you keep talking such empty nonsense?

12Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; why then are ye thus altogether vain?

Note"Vain" here keeps its older sense of empty or without substance. The charge is that the friends' words are hollow, not that they are conceited.

13This is the share that an evil man gets from God, what cruel men receive from the Almighty as their inheritance:

13This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty.

Note"Portion" and "heritage" are the language of inherited property, the share of land or goods allotted to a person. Applied to a person's fate, they mean the lot assigned to him, what he has coming. Readers should also know that verses 13-23 sound very like what Job's friends have been arguing and unlike what Job has said elsewhere; because Zophar, the third friend, never gets a third speech in the book as it stands, many readers have suspected that these lines were originally his, or that Job is quoting the friends' doctrine back at them. The Hebrew text gives no speaker marks, so the ambiguity cannot be resolved from the wording.

14If he has many children, they are marked for the sword, and the ones who come after him will never have enough to eat.

14If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Note"For the sword" means destined to die violently, in war or raid, the sword stands for violent death generally. "Bread" in Hebrew idiom regularly means food of any kind, not just baked loaves.

15Those of his family who are left will be buried by the plague, and their widows will not weep for them.

15Those that remain of him shall be buried in death: and his widows shall not weep.

NoteThe Hebrew word rendered "death" here is often taken in the specific sense of deadly plague or pestilence, which is why modern translations say "buried by the plague." That widows do not weep is a mark of disgrace, not indifference: formal loud mourning at a burial was a social duty, and to be buried without it, often because a plague left no one able or willing to perform the rites, was a shameful end.

16He may pile up silver like dust and stack up clothing like heaps of clay.

16Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay;

NoteCloth was a major store of wealth in the ancient world, not just something to wear. Chests of garments were accumulated, inherited, and handed over as gifts and payments, so "piling up clothing" alongside silver is a picture of a rich man's treasury.

17He may stack it up, but honest people will wear those clothes, and people who have done no wrong will split the silver among themselves.

17He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.

18The house he builds is as flimsy as a moth's cocoon, like a shack a watchman throws together.

18He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper maketh.

NoteTwo images of flimsiness. The moth's structure is the frail case or cocoon it builds, crushed by a touch. The "booth that the keeper maketh" is the rough shelter of branches a watchman threw up in a vineyard or melon field to guard the crop during harvest, then abandoned when the season ended.

19The rich man lies down, but he is not gathered up. He opens his eyes, and he is gone.

19The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered: he openeth his eyes, and he is not.

Note"Not gathered" is ambiguous in the Hebrew and has been read two ways: that the rich man is not "gathered to his fathers," that is, not given a proper burial with his ancestors; or, following an early variant reading, that he lies down rich and will never do so again. The rendering keeps the first sense.

20Terrors catch up with him like a flood. A windstorm snatches him away in the night.

20Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.

21The east wind picks him up and he is gone. It sweeps him out of the place where he lived.

21The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth: and as a storm hurleth him out of his place.

NoteThe east wind is the sirocco, a scorching wind off the Arabian desert. It blows in from the interior, withers vegetation within hours, and was the standard image in Hebrew for sudden, unstoppable destruction.

22It hurls itself at him and shows him no mercy, while he tries hard to escape its grip.

22For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand.

Note"Would fain flee" is old English for "would gladly flee" or "tries desperately to flee." The Hebrew of verses 22-23 does not state who is doing the hurling and hissing; it may be God, carried over from the start of verse 22, or the east wind of verse 21 personified. Translations differ, and the rendering here takes it as the wind.

23It claps its hands at him and hisses at him as he is driven out of his place."

23Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.

NoteClapping and hissing are gestures of scorn, not applause. In Hebrew idiom, to clap the hands at someone and to hiss or whistle at them expresses contemptuous mockery and shock at their downfall, the noise a crowd makes over ruins.