| | 1 | Then Job replied: | |
| | 2 | "Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you give me. | |
| | 3 | Bear with me while I speak, and after I have spoken, mock on. | |
| | 4 | "Is my complaint directed to man? Why should I not be impatient? | |
| | 5 | Look at me and be astonished; clap your hand over your mouth. | |
| | 6 | When I think about this, I am terrified; trembling seizes my body. | |
| | 7 | Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power? | |
| | 8 | They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes. | |
| | 9 | Their homes are safe and free from fear; the rod of God is not upon them. | |
| | 10 | Their bulls never fail to breed; their cows calve and do not miscarry. | |
| | 11 | They send forth their children as a flock; their little ones dance about. | |
| | 12 | They sing to the music of tambourine and harp; they make merry to the sound of the flute. | |
| | 13 | They spend their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace. | |
| | 14 | Yet they say to God, 'Leave us alone! We have no desire to know your ways. | |
| | 15 | Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?' | |
| | 16 | But their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stand aloof from the counsel of the wicked. | |
| | 17 | "Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out? How often does calamity come upon them, the fate God allots in his anger? | |
| | 18 | How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a gale? | |
| | 19 | It is said,'God stores up a man's punishment for his sons.' Let him repay the man himself, so that he will know it! | |
| | 20 | Let his own eyes see his destruction; let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. | |
| | 21 | For what does he care about the family he leaves behind when his allotted months come to an end? | |
| | 22 | "Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since he judges even the highest? | |
| | 23 | One man dies in full vigor, completely secure and at ease, | |
| | 24 | his body well nourished, his bones rich with marrow. | |
| | 25 | Another man dies in bitterness of soul, never having enjoyed anything good. | |
| | 26 | Side by side they lie in the dust, and worms cover them both. | |
| | 27 | "I know full well what you are thinking, the schemes by which you would wrong me. | |
| | 28 | You say, 'Where now is the great man's house, the tents where wicked men lived?' | |
| | 29 | Have you never questioned those who travel? Have you paid no regard to their accounts-- | |
| | 30 | that the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, that he is delivered from the day of wrath? | |
| | 31 | Who denounces his conduct to his face? Who repays him for what he has done? | |
| | 32 | He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb. | |
| | 33 | The soil in the valley is sweet to him; all men follow after him, and a countless throng goes before him. | |
| | 34 | "So how can you console me with your nonsense? Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!" | |
