Job 27:1-10

1 And Job continued speaking:
2 "As surely as God lives, who has taken away my rights, the Almighty, who has made me unhappy,
3 as long as I am alive and God's breath of life is in my nose,
4 my lips will not speak evil, and my tongue will not tell a lie.
5 I will never agree you are right; until I die, I will never stop saying I am innocent.
6 I will insist that I am right; I will not back down. My conscience will never bother me.
7 "Let my enemies be like evil people, my foes like those who are wrong.
8 What hope do the wicked have when they die, when God takes their life away?
9 God will not listen to their cries when trouble comes to them.
10 They will not find joy in the Almighty, even though they call out to God all the time.

Job 27:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 27

Though Job's friends were become silent, and dropped the controversy with him, he still continued his discourse in this and the four following chapters; in which he asserts his integrity; illustrates and confirms his former sentiments; gives further proof of his knowledge of things, natural and divine; takes notice of his former state of prosperity, and of his present distresses and afflictions, which came upon him, notwithstanding his piety, humanity, and beneficence, and his freedom from the grosser acts of sin, both with respect to God and men, all which he enlarges upon. In this chapter he gives his word and oath for it, that he would never belie himself, and own that he was an hypocrite, when he was not, but would continue to assert his integrity, and the righteousness of his cause, as long as he lived, Job 27:1-6; for to be an hypocrite, and to attempt to conceal his hypocrisy, would be of no advantage to him, either in life, or in death, Job 27:7-10; and was this his character and case, upon their principles, he could expect no other than to be a miserable man, as wicked men are, who have their blessings turned into curses, or taken away from them, and they removed out of the world in the most awful and terrible manner, and under manifest tokens of the wrath and displeasure of God, Job 27:11-23.

Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.