1Job began to speak again. ¹⁶⁷

2“I promise you—as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made my life bitter,

3for as long as I have life, while the breath of God remains in my nostrils—

4my lips will never speak lies, my tongue will never be dishonest.

5I will never agree that you are right; I will insist on my innocence until the day I die.

6I'm convinced I'm right and will never give up believing this; my conscience ¹⁶⁸will not condemn me as long as I live.

7May my enemy become like the wicked; may those who oppose me become like those who do evil.

8For what hope do those who reject God have when he cuts them down, when God brings their lives to an end?

9When times of trouble come to them, will God hear their cry for help?

10Do they have a good relationship with the Almighty? Can they call on God at any time?

11Let me explain God's power to you. I will not keep anything back that the Almighty has planned.

12If all of you have recognized this, why do you talk such vain nonsense?

13This is what God provides as the destiny for the wicked, this is the inheritance that the ruthless will receive from the Almighty ¹⁶⁹—

14even if they have many children, they will experience violent deaths ¹⁷⁰or die of starvation.

15Those who survive will die from disease, and even their widows will not mourn for them.

16Even though they pile up silver like dust, and clothes like heaps of clay,

17those who do good will wear the clothes and the innocent will divide the silver among them.

18They build their houses like a moth; ¹⁷¹like some flimsy shelter made by a watchman.

19They go to bed rich, but never again! For when they wake up, it's all gone.

20Waves of panic flood over them; in the night a whirlwind snatches them away.

21The east wind picks them up and they're gone, carried away from where they were.

22The wind blows at them with full force; they try desperately to escape.

23People ¹⁷²clap their hands at them and hiss at them wherever they are.”