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25Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: ²“Dominion and fear are with God; he makes peace in his high heaven. ³Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not arise? ⁴How then can a mortal be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure? ⁵If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his sight, ⁶how much less a mortal, who is a maggot, and a human being, who is a worm!”

26Then Job answered: ²“How you have helped one who has no power! How you have assisted the arm that has no strength! ³How you have counseled one who has no wisdom, and given much good advice! ⁴With whose help have you uttered words, and whose spirit has come forth from you?

⁵The shades below tremble, the waters and their inhabitants. ⁶Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering. ⁷He stretches out Zaphon over the void, and hangs the earth upon nothing. ⁸He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not torn open by them. ⁹He covers the face of the full moon, and spreads over it his cloud. ¹⁰He has described a circle on the face of the waters, at the boundary between light and darkness. ¹¹The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astounded at his rebuke. ¹²By his power he stilled the Sea; by his understanding he struck down Rahab. ¹³By his wind the heavens were made fair; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent. ¹⁴These are indeed but the outskirts of his ways; and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

27Job 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, ³as long as my breath is in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, ⁴my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit. ⁵Far be it from me to say that you are right; until I die I will not put away my integrity from me. ⁶I hold fast my righteousness, and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

⁷“May my enemy be like the wicked, and may my opponent be like the unrighteous. ⁸For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts them off, when God takes away their lives? ⁹Will God hear their cry when trouble comes upon them? ¹⁰Will they take delight in the Almighty? Will they call upon God at all times?

¹¹I will teach you concerning the hand of God; that which is with the Almighty I will not conceal. ¹²All of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain? ¹³“This is the portion of the wicked with God, and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty: ¹⁴If their children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and their offspring have not enough to eat. ¹⁵Those who survive them the pestilence buries, and their widows make no lamentation. ¹⁶Though they heap up silver like dust, and pile up clothing like clay— ¹⁷they may pile it up, but the just will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver. ¹⁸They build their houses like nests, like booths made by sentinels of the vineyard. ¹⁹They go to bed with wealth, but will do so no more; they open their eyes, and it is gone. ²⁰Terrors overtake them like a flood; in the night a whirlwind carries them off. ²¹The east wind lifts them up and they are gone; it sweeps them out of their place. ²²It hurls at them without pity; they flee from its power in headlong flight. ²³It claps its hands at them, and hisses at them from its place.