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[1] THEN Job answered and said,
[2] Listen diligently to my speech, and let this be your consolation.
[3] Suffer me that I may speak; and after I have spoken, then mock on.
[4] I will utter my complaint to men, why my spirit is distressed.
[5] Return to me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.
[6] Even when I think of it, I tremble, and terror takes hold of my flesh
[7] Why do the ungodly live, and why are the mighty in power full of years?
[8] Their descendants are established in their sight with them, and their children before their eyes.
[9] Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.
[10] Their bull breeds, and fails not; their cow calves, and does not cast her calf.
[11] Their children stand firm like a flock, and their boys dance.
[12] They take the timbrels and harps, and rejoice at the sound of singing.
[13] They spend their days in prosperity, and then suddenly go down to Sheol.
[14] They say to God, Depart from us; for we do not desire to know thy ways.
[15] Moreover, they say, Who is God, that we should serve him? And what would we gain, that we should pray to him?
[16] Lo, they have no power over their prosperity; the counsel of the ungodly is far from me
[17] How often is it that the wicked are left without an heir! how often their destruction comes upon them! God distributes sorrows in his anger.
[18] They are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away.
[19] God reserves man's iniquity for his children; he pays it back to him, and he shall know it.
[20] His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
[21] For what pleasure has he in his house after him, when a portion of his years shall be reserved for his posterity?
[22] Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing it is he who judges the proud?
[23] One dies in his full strength, sound of body, being wholly confident, and at ease.
[24] His body is full of fat, and his bones are filled with marrow.
[25] And another dies in the bitterness of his soul, never having tasted prosperity.
[26] They shall lie down in the dust, and the worms shall cover them
[27] Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which you wrongfully imagine against me.
[28] For you say. Where is the house of the righteous? And where is the place in which the wicked has pitched his tent?
[29] Have you not asked those who pass by the way? And do you not recognize their tokens?
[30] For the evil man is reserved for the day of destruction, he shall be remembered in the day of wrath.
[31] Who can show him the way? And who shall repay him for what he has done?
[32] Yet he shall be brought to the grave, he is reserved for misfortune.
[33] The depths of the valley shall swallow him, and many shall be drawn in after him, even as there are innumerable ahead of him.
[34] How then can you comfort me in vain, seeing that your abominable answers are multiplied before me
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