1 T hen Job answered,

2 “ Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.

3 A llow me, and I also will speak; After I have spoken, mock on.

4 A s for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn’t I be impatient?

5 L ook at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.

6 W hen I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.

7 “ Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?

8 T heir child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes.

9 T heir houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.

10 T heir bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.

11 T hey send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.

12 T hey sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.

13 T hey spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.

14 T hey tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.

15 W hat is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’

16 B ehold, their prosperity is not 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 on them, that God distributes sorrows in his anger?

18 H ow often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?

19 Y ou say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’ Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.

20 L et his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

21 F or what does he care for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?

22 “ Shall any teach God knowledge, since he judges those who are high?

23 O ne dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

24 H is pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.

25 A nother dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.

26 T hey lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them.

27 “ Behold, I know your thoughts, the devices with which you would wrong me.

28 F or you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’

29 H aven’t you asked wayfaring men? Don’t you know their evidences,

30 t hat the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, That they are led out to the day of wrath?

31 W ho shall declare his way to his face? Who shall repay him what he has done?

32 Y et he will be borne to the grave. Men shall keep watch over the tomb.

33 T he clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.

34 S o how can you comfort me with nonsense, because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”