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!" |