[1] Then Job answered: [2] "Listen carefully to my words, and let this be
your consolation. [3] Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have
spoken, mock on. [4] As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I
not be impatient? [5] Look at me, and be appalled, and lay your hand upon
your mouth. [6] When I think of it I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my
flesh. [7] Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
[8] Their children are established in their presence, and their offspring
before their eyes. [9] Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God
is upon them. [10] Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves, and
does not cast her calf. [11] They send forth their little ones like a
flock, and their children dance. [12] They sing to the tambourine and the
lyre, and rejoice to the sound of the pipe. [13] They spend their days in
prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol. [14] They say to God, `ey
say to God, "Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of thy ways.
[15] What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we
get if we pray to him?' [16] Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?
The counsel of the wicked is far from me. [17] "How often is it that the
lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That
God distributes pains in his anger? [18] That they are like straw before
the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away? [19] You say, `God
stores up their iniquity for their sons.' Let him recompense it to
themselves, that they may know it. [20] Let their own eyes see their
destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty. [21] For what
do they care for their houses after them, when the number of their months
is cut off? [22] Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those
that are on high? [23] One dies in full prosperity, being wholly at ease
and secure, [24] his body full of fat and the marrow of his bones moist.
[25] Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of good. [26]
They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them. [27] "Behold, I
know your thoughts, and your schemes to wrong me. [28] For you say, `r you
say, "Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the
wicked dwelt?' [29] Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do
you not accept their testimony [30] that the wicked man is spared in the
day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath? [31] Who declares
his way to his face, and who requites him for what he has done? [32] When
he is borne to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb. [33] The clods of
the valley are sweet to him; all men follow after him, and those who go
before him are innumerable. [34] How then will you comfort me with empty
nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood."