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1 Then Job answered:
2 “Listen carefully to my words, and let this be the comfort you give me.
3 Bear with me, and I will speak;
after I have spoken, you may mock.
4 Is my complaint directed to man?
Why should my spirit not grow impatient?
5 Look at me and be appalled;
put your hand over your mouth.
6 When I remember, I am terrified, and trembling seizes my flesh.
7 Why do the wicked live on, grow old, and become mighty in power?
8 Their descendants are established before them, with them, and their offspring before their eyes.
9 Their houses are at peace, without fear, and the rod of God is not upon them.
10 His bull breeds without fail;
his cow calves without miscarriage.
11 They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
12 They raise their voices to the tambourine and lyre and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
13 They spend their days in prosperity and in a moment go down to Sheol.
14 They say to God, ‘Depart from us!
We have no desire to know your ways.
15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
What do we gain by pleading with him?’
16 Look, their prosperity is not in their hand;
the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17 How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
How often does their calamity come upon them, and does he apportion pains in his anger?
18 How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff that a storm steals away?
19 ‘God stores up his iniquity for his sons.’ Let him repay the man himself, so that he may know!
20 Let his own eyes see his ruin, and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty!
21 For what does he care for his house after he is gone, when the number of his months is cut off?
22 Can anyone teach God knowledge, when he judges those on high?
23 One dies in his full vigor, wholly at ease and secure.
24 His pails are full of milk, and the marrow of his bones is well watered.
25 Another dies with a bitter soul, never having tasted good.
26 Together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them.
27 Look, I know your thoughts and the schemes with which you wrong me.
28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the noble?
Where is the tent in which the wicked dwelt?’
29 Have you not asked travelers?
Will you not recognize their testimony,
30 that the wicked man is spared on the day of calamity, that they are led away on the day of wrath?
31 Who tells him his way to his face?
Who repays him for what he has done?
32 He is carried to the graves, and watch is kept over the mound.
33 The clods of the valley are sweet to him;
all mankind follows after him, and those before him are beyond number.
34 How then do you comfort me with emptiness, when your answers leave only faithlessness?”