1: Having waited for Zophar, Job now resumed his defense:
2: "God--Alive! He's denied me justice! God Almighty! He's ruined my life!
3: But for as long as I draw breath, and for as long as God breathes life into me,
4: I refuse to say one word that isn't true. I refuse to confess to any charge that's false.
5: There is no way I'll ever agree to your accusations. I'll not deny my integrity even if it costs me my life.
6: I'm holding fast to my integrity and not loosening my grip--and, believe me, I'll never regret it.
7: "Let my enemy be exposed as wicked! Let my adversary be proven guilty!
8: What hope do people without God have when life is cut short? when God puts an end to life?
9: Do you think God will listen to their cry for help when disaster hits?
10: What interest have they ever shown in the Almighty? Have they ever been known to pray before?
11: "I've given you a clear account of God in action, suppressed nothing regarding God Almighty.
12: The evidence is right before you. You can all see it for yourselves, so why do you keep talking nonsense?
13: "I'll quote your own words back to you: This is how God treats the wicked, this is what evil people can expect from God Almighty:
14: Their children--all of them--will die violent deaths; they'll never have enough bread to put on the table.
15: They'll be wiped out by the plague, and none of the widows will shed a tear when they're gone.
16: Even if they make a lot of money and are resplendent in the latest fashions,
17: It's the good who will end up wearing the clothes and the decent who will divide up the money.
18: They build elaborate houses that won't survive a single winter.
19: They go to bed wealthy and wake up poor.
20: Terrors pour in on them like flash floods--a tornado snatches them away in the middle of the night,
21: A cyclone sweeps them up--gone! Not a trace of them left, not even a footprint.
22: Catastrophes relentlessly pursue them; they run this way and that, but there's no place to hide--
23: Pummeled by the weather, blown to kingdom come by the storm.'