Job 34:16-30

16“If you understand, listen to this. Open your ears to my words!

17Should anyone who hates justice be allowed to govern? Will you condemn the one who is righteous and mighty?

18Should anyone ⌞even⌟ say to a king, ‘You good-for-nothing scoundrel!’ or to nobles, ‘You wicked people!’

19The one who is righteous and mighty does not grant special favors to princes or prefer important people over poor people because his hands made them all.

20They die suddenly in the middle of the night. People have seizures and pass away. Mighty people are taken away but not by human hands.

21God’s eyes are on a person’s ways. He sees all his steps.

22There’s no darkness or deep shadow where troublemakers can hide.

23He doesn’t have to set a time for a person in order to bring him to divine judgment.

24He breaks mighty people into pieces without examining them and puts others in their places.

25He knows what they do, so he overthrows them at night, and they’re crushed.

26In return for their evil, he strikes them in public,

27because they turned away from following him and didn’t consider any of his ways.

28They forced the poor to cry out to him, and he hears the cry of those who suffer.

29If he keeps quiet, who can condemn him? If he hides his face, who can see him whether it is a nation or a single person?

30⌞He does this⌟ so that godless people cannot rule and so that they cannot trap people.