For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?
'What hope hath the hypocrite, notwithstanding all his gains, when?' etc. "Gained" [batsaa`] is antithetic to "taketh away.'' Umbreit's a translation is an unmeaning tautology: 'When God cuts off, when He taketh away his life,'
Taketh away - literally, draws out the soul from the body, which is, as it were, its scabbard (Job 4:21; Psalms 104:29; Daniel 7:15, "body." margin, sheath; cf. 2 Peter 1:14). Job says he admits what Bildad said (Job 8:13), and Zophar (Job 20:5). But he says the very fact of his still calling upon God (Job 27:10), amidst all his trials, which a hypocrite would not dare to do, shows he is no "hypocrite."