Job 27
The full text of Job 27 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 And Job again took up his discourse and said:
2 As God lives, who has taken away my right,
and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,
3 as long as my breath is in me,
and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,
4 my lips will not speak falsehood,
and my tongue will not utter deceit.
5 Far be it from me to say that you are right;
until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
6 I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;
my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.
7 Let my enemy be as the wicked,
and let him who rises against me be as the unrighteous.
8 For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off,
when God takes away his life?
9 Will God hear his cry
when distress comes upon him?
10 Will he take delight in the Almighty?
Will he call upon God at all times?
11 I will teach you concerning the hand of God;
what is with the Almighty I will not conceal.
12 Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves;
why then have you become altogether vain?
13 This is the portion of the wicked man with God,
the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:
14 If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword;
and his descendants have not enough bread.
15 Those who survive him the plague buries,
and his widows do not weep.
16 Though he heaps up silver like dust
and piles up clothing like clay,
17 he may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it,
and the innocent will divide the silver.
18 He builds his house like a moth's cocoon,
like a booth that a watchman makes.
19 He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more;
he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone.
20 Terrors overtake him like a flood;
in the night a whirlwind carries him off.
21 The east wind lifts him up and he is gone;
it sweeps him out of his place.
22 It hurls at him without pity;
he flees from its power in headlong flight.
23 It claps its hands at him
and hisses at him from its place.
Translation notes (8)
- Job 27:3a The Hebrew rûaḥ (רוּחַ) can refer to wind, breath, or spirit. Here, it is parallel to 'breath' (neshāmāh, נְשָׁמָה), suggesting 'the breath of God' rather than 'the Spirit of God'.
- Job 27:6a Hebrew levav (לֵבָב), 'heart', here denotes the conscience, the inner faculty of moral self-judgment, a sense the word often carries in the Hebrew Bible (compare 1 Samuel 24:5). Job's claim is that his conscience finds no ground of accusation against him. The verb charaph, 'to reproach', is elsewhere used of taunting an enemy.
- Job 27:8a The Masoretic Text has ki yivtsa' (כי יבצע), from batsa' (בצע), 'to cut off' or 'to gain', a terse clause lacking a stated subject. This translation supplies God as subject, rendered here as 'when God cuts him off'. The Septuagint diverges, paraphrasing the line and not expressing the idea of being cut off.
- Job 27:13a This verse echoes almost word for word the close of Zophar's second speech in Job 20:29. Because the third cycle of speeches lacks a reply from Zophar, some interpreters assign Job 27:13-23 to him, while others hold that Job here quotes his friends' doctrine in order to answer it. The Masoretic Text presents the whole chapter as Job's own words.
- Job 27:15a Ancient Near Eastern mourning customs frequently included public lamentation by widows; Job here describes a punitive divine judgment where such rites are absent.
- Job 27:18a The Masoretic Text reads ka'ash (כָּעָשׁ), 'like a moth', the fragile dwelling being the insect's cocoon; the Septuagint and the Syriac Peshitta read 'like a spider', picturing a web instead. Either image conveys flimsiness, reinforced by the parallel with the watchman's temporary booth in a field.
- Job 27:20a Hebrew kammayim, literally 'like waters', is rendered here as 'like a flood'. Because ballahot, 'terrors', lacks a stated time to balance laylah, 'night', in the second line, some interpreters emend to bayyom, 'by day'; the Masoretic Text's reading of overwhelming waters is retained here as both intelligible and well attested.
- Job 27:23a Clapping the hands and hissing are ancient gestures of derision, not applause, as in Lamentations 2:15 and Zephaniah 2:15. The Hebrew verbs leave the subject unexpressed; this translation takes it to be the east wind of verse 21, personified as jeering at the wicked man it has swept away, though some interpreters understand God or onlookers as the subject.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is a new translation of the Bible prepared by Trinity Bible — rendered from the original Hebrew and faithful to the earliest and most reliable manuscripts. Finished in 2026, it is the most modern English Bible translation you can read today, and it is available only through Trinity Bible. All 66 books, including Job, are free to read on this site.
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