1But Job answered and said,
2"Listen carefully to what I say. Let this be the comfort you give me."
3Allow me to speak. And after I have spoken, go on mocking.
4As for me, is my complaint against a man? If it were, why should my spirit not be troubled?
5Look at me, and be astonished, and put your hand over your mouth.
6Even when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling takes hold of my body.
7Why do the wicked go on living? They grow old, and they grow mighty in power.
8Their children are settled with them, where they can see them, and their grandchildren before their eyes.
9Their houses are safe from fear, and the rod of God is not on them.
10Their bull breeds and does not fail. Their cow gives birth and does not lose her calf.
11They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
12They take up the timbrel and harp, and are glad at the sound of the pipe.
13They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to the grave.
14So they say to God, 'Leave us alone. We do not want to know your ways.
15Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain if we prayed to him?'
16Look, their good 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? How often does their ruin come upon them? How often does God hand out sorrows in his anger?
18They are like straw before the wind, like chaff that the storm carries away.
19You say, 'God stores up a man's sin for his children.' Let God pay the man himself, so that he knows it.
20Let his own eyes see his ruin, and let him drink the wrath of the Almighty.
21For what does he care about his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
22Can anyone teach God knowledge, since it is he who judges those on high?
23One man dies in his full strength, completely at ease and untroubled.
24His body is well fed, and his bones are wet with marrow.
25Another man dies with a bitter soul, and never tastes anything good.
26They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them both.
27Look, I know your thoughts, and the schemes you wrongly plan against me.
28For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent where the wicked lived?'
29Have you not asked those who travel the roads? Do you not recognise the signs they tell of,
30that the wicked is spared for the day of destruction? They will be led out on the day of wrath.
31Who will tell him to his face what he has done? Who will pay him back for it?
32Yet he will be carried to the grave, and a watch will be kept over his tomb.
33The clods of the valley will be sweet to him. Everyone follows after him, as countless others went before him.
34"So how can you comfort me with empty words, when nothing is left of your answers but lies?"