Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Job 27

• “Abandon all hope, you who enter here.” ~ Dante’s Divine Comedy. The 1814 translation into English by the Reverend H. F. Cary.
  
• The Constrictor’s mouth enlarges its throat and opens wide its enormous jaws to swallow alive its victims; devoured in the graveyard of its swollen belly.
  
• “Hell from beneath is excited to meet you at your coming; It stirs up the dead for you,” Isaiah 14:9.

Job Maintains His Integrity

Job 27:¹ Moreover Job continued his discourse, and said:

Job 27:² “As God (‘ēl) lives, who has taken away my justice,
And the Almighty (šaday), who has made my soul bitter,
Job 27:³ As long as my breath is in me,
And the breath of God (‘ĕlôha) in my nostrils,
Job 27:⁴ My lips will not speak wickedness (H5766 – ʿevel)
Nor my tongue utter deceit.

The Shades of Sheol
The Evil, The Deceitful

Job 27:⁵ Far be it from me
That I should say you are right;
Till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
Job 27:⁶ My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go;
My heart shall not reproach (reprove) me as long as I live.

Job 27:⁷ “May my enemy be like the wicked,
And he who rises up against me like the unrighteous.
Job 27:⁸ For what is the hope of the hypocrite,
Though he may gain much,
If God (‘ĕlôha) takes away his life (soul)?

The Shades of Sheol
The Wicked, The Unrighteous, The Hypocrite

Job 27:⁹ Will God (‘ēl) hear his cry
When trouble comes upon him?
Job 27:¹⁰ Will he delight himself in the Almighty (šaday)?
Will he always call on God (‘ĕlôha)?

Job 27:¹¹ “I will teach you about (by) the hand of God (‘ēl);
What is with the Almighty (šaday) I will not conceal.
Job 27:¹² Surely all of you have seen it;
Why then do you behave with complete nonsense?

Job 27:¹³ “This is the portion of a wicked man with God(‘ēl),
And the heritage of oppressors, received from the Almighty (šaday):
Job 27:¹⁴ If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword;
And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

The Shades of Sheol
The Wicked, The Oppressors

A wicked man leaves his children with turmoil and war
in their inheritance, and there is no satisfaction in life.

Job 27:¹⁵ Those who survive him (his children) shall be buried in death,
And their (Lit. his) widows shall not weep,

The heart that is empty of love has none to give.

Job 27:¹⁶ Though he heaps up silver like dust,
And piles up clothing like clay—

Power can be purchased with dust and clay, but silver cannot buy affection unless it is shared.

Job 27:¹⁷ He may pile it up, but the just will wear it,
And the innocent will divide the silver.

The living are the heirs of silver left behind by the wicked dead,
given by God to the just and the innocent.

Job 27:¹⁸ He builds his house like a moth (spider or decay),
Like (nothing more than) a booth (Temporary shelter) which a watchman makes.

A man is nothing more than a tent unless God fills it with His breath.

Job 27:¹⁹ The rich man will lie down,
But not be gathered up (But take away nothing);
He opens his eyes,
And he is no more.

The Shades of Sheol
The Rich Man without an ear for God

“He opens his eyes, and (discovers that) he is NO MORE”
The Dead know that they are Dead.

Job 27:²⁰ Terrors overtake him like a flood;
A tempest steals him away in the night.

The Terror of Death is a Death without God.

Job 27:²¹ The east wind carries him away, and he is gone;
It sweeps him out of his place.

• The East Wind in the Bible is associated with destruction, judgment, and divine intervention.
• It serves as a reminder of God’s sovereignty, power, and involvement in our lives.
• The East Wind highlights the consequences of disobedience and the need for repentance.
• Symbolically, it signifies purification, renewal, and deliverance.
  https://biblicalpathway.com/biblical-meaning-of-east-wind/
• It was the East Wind that divided the Red Sea. Exodus 14:21
• The East Wind blighted the plant that gave Jonah his shade. Jonah 4:8

Job 27:²² It hurls against him and does not spare;
He flees desperately from its power (Lit. hand).

A tsunami of spirits sweeps him away, but he is only a shadow; he is powerless without his might.

Job 27:²³ Men shall clap their hands at him,
And shall hiss him out of his place.

Those in Sheol do not welcome him. The dead remember his deeds. The (euphemism) “head of the table” has no “place”.

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