16. Now listen to me, if you are wise.
17. Are you condemning the righteous God?Do you think that he hates justice?
18. God condemns kings and rulerswhen they are worthless or wicked.
19. He does not take the side of rulersnor favour the rich against the poor,for he created everyone.
20. Someone may suddenly die at night.God strikes people down and they perish;he kills the mighty with no effort at all.
21. He watches every step we take.
22. There is no darkness dark enoughto hide a sinner from God.
23. God does not need to set a timefor us to go and be judged by him.
24. He does not need an investigationto remove leaders and replace them with others.
25. Because he knows what they dohe overthrows them and crushes them by night.
26. He punishes sinners where all can see it,
27. because they have stopped following himand ignored all his commands.
28. They forced the poor to cry out to God,and he heard their calls for help.
29. If God decided to do nothing at all,no one could criticize him.If he hid his face, we would be helpless.
30. There would be nothing that nations could doto keep godless oppressors from ruling them.
31. Job, have you confessed your sins to Godand promised not to sin again?
32. Have you asked God to show you your faults,and have you agreed to stop doing evil?
33. Since you object to what God does,can you expect him to do what you want?The decision is yours, not mine;tell us now what you think.