1Then Job answered and said:
2“Listen carefully to my word, and let this be your consolations.
3Bear with me, and I myself will speak; and after I have spoken, you may mock.
4As for me, is my complaint against a human? And why should my spirit not be impatient?
5Turn to me and be appalled, and lay your hand upon your mouth.
6When I remember, I am terrified, and shuddering seizes my flesh.
7Why do the wicked live on, grow old, and even become mighty in wealth?
8Their offspring is established before them with them, and their descendants before their eyes.
9Their houses are safe, without fear, and no rod of God is upon them.
10His bull breeds and does not fail; his cow calves and does not miscarry.
11They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children skip about.
12They lift up their voices with tambourine and lyre, and rejoice at the sound of the flute.
13They spend their days in prosperity, and in a moment they go down to Sheol.
14Yet they say to God, ‘Turn away from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.
15What is Shaddai, that we should serve him? And what would we gain if we entreat him?’
16Behold, their prosperity is not in their own hand — the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, and their calamity comes upon them? How often does God apportion pains in his anger?
18How often are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries off?
19God stores up his iniquity for his children. Let him repay him himself, that he may know it!
20Let his own eyes see his destruction, and let him drink of the wrath of Shaddai.
21For what does he care for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
22Can anyone teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those on high?
23One dies in his full vigor, wholly at ease and secure,
24his pails full of milk, and the marrow of his bones moist.
25And another dies with a bitter soul, having never tasted prosperity.
26Together they lie down in the dust, and the worm covers them.
27Behold, I know your thoughts and the schemes by which you would wrong me.
28For you say, ‘Where is the house of the noble? And where is the tent of the dwelling-places of the wicked?’
29Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not recognize their signs,
30that the wicked is spared in the day of calamity, that they are led away in the day of wrath?
31Who declares his way to his face? And who repays him for what he has done?
32He himself is carried off to the graves, and over the tomb-mound a watch is kept.
33The clods of the valley are sweet to him; and every man is drawn along after him, and before him there is no number.
34How then can you comfort me with emptiness, when your answers remain treachery?
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