Job 27)
1 Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
2 "As GOD (El) lives, Who has taken away my judgment; and The Almighty (Shaddai), Who has vexed me;
3 All the while my breath is in me, and the breath of GOD (Eloah) is in my nostrils;
4 My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.
5 Far be it from me that I should justify you: till I expire I will not remove my integrity from me.
6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
7 Let my enemy be as the lawless, and he that rises up against me as the unrighteous.
8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he has gained, when he lifts up himself to GOD? (Or, "when GOD demands his life.")
9 Will GOD hear his cry when trouble comes upon him?
10 Will he delight himself in The Almighty? will he continually call upon GOD?"
J9 F 27:11-23. Unwisdom.
G n 28:1-6. What man knows.
o 28:7,8. What man does not know.
G n 28:9-11. What man can do.
o 12-19. What man can not do.
F 28:20-28. Wisdom.
11 "I will teach you by the hand of GOD: that which is with The Almighty will I not conceal. (This is Zophar's 3rd and last address. If these are Job's words, then his friends had convicted him, which Elihu declares they had not done. The Heb. in 29:1 does not mean "continued", but "added to make up his discourse", which may mean conclusion as well as continuance. It marks off and separates 29:1-31:40 from Job's ordinary replies. Instead of replying to Zophar Job utters his "self-justification" [in 29:1-30:40], which corresponds to his lamentations in 3:1-26, and forms the conclusion as that had been the introduction and prepares us for "the words of Job are ended" in 31:40)
12 Behold, all you yourselves have seen it; why then are you thus altogether vain?
13 This is the portion of a wicked man with GOD, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of The Almighty. (Zophar takes up the words with which he had concluded in his 2nd address [20:29].)
14 If his sons be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
15 Those that remain of him shall be buried through pestilence: and the widows of each of them shall not weep.
16 Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay;
17 He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.
18 He builds his house as a moth, and as a booth (generally made of branches of trees. Cp. Isa. 1:8. Jonah 4:5. Lev. 23:40-42) that the watcher (i.e. vineyard watcher) makes.
19 The rich man shall lie down, but it (i.e. his wealth which is out at interest) shall not be gathered in (or collected): he opens his eyes, and it is not. (I.e. his wealth is gone. Not he, the rich man, for if he opens his eyes, he "is", not "is not".)
20 Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest steals him away in the night.
21 The east wind carries him away, and he departs: and as a storm hurls him out of his place.
22 He who was in times past to hastily flee from the rich man will now come down on him.
23 Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.