1 Then Job answered and said:
2 "Hear, oh hear what I say, and let that be the consolation you offer.
3 Put up with me while I speak, and once I have spoken, go on mocking.
4 As for me, is my complaint addressed to a man? Why then should my spirit not be short?
5 Turn to me and be astonished, and put your hand over your mouth.
6 Even when I think of it I am alarmed, and a shudder grips my flesh.
7 Why do the wicked go on living, reach old age, and even grow strong in might?
8 Their seed is firmly settled in their sight, with them, and their offspring before their eyes.
9 Their homes are at peace, free of fear, and no rod of God is on them.
10 Their bull mates and does not fail; their cow gives birth and does not lose her calf.
11 They let their little ones run out like a flock, and their children skip about.
12 They lift their voices to tambourine and lyre and make merry to the sound of the flute.
13 They live out their days in good things, and in an instant they go down to Sheol.
14 And they say to God, 'Keep away from us! We have no wish to know your ways.
15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by entreating him?'
16 See, their good fortune is not in their own hand; far from me be the counsel of the wicked!
17 How often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out, and their ruin comes upon them, and he deals out sorrows in his anger?
18 How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff whisked off by the storm?
19 You say, 'God stores up a man's iniquity for his sons.' Let him pay back the man himself, so that he knows it.
20 Let his own eyes see his ruin, and let him drink of the Almighty's wrath.
21 For what does he care about his house after he is gone, when the number of his months has been cut short?
22 Will anyone teach God knowledge, when it is he who judges those on high?
23 One man dies in the fullness of his strength, wholly at ease and untroubled,
24 his pails brimming with milk, and the marrow of his bones well moistened.
25 Another dies with a bitter soul, having never tasted anything good.
26 Together they lie down in the dust, and maggots cover them both.
27 See, I know what you are thinking, and the schemes by which you would do me violence.
28 For you say, 'Where is the house of the nobleman? Where is the tent the wicked lived in?'
29 Have you never asked those who pass along the road? Do you not recognize their accounts,
30 that the evil man is spared on the day of disaster, that they are led away on the day of wrath?
31 Who will confront him with his way to his face? Who will repay him for what he has done?
32 He is borne to the grave, and men keep watch over his tomb.
33 The clods of the valley lie sweet on him; everyone trails after him, and before him there were countless others.
34 So how can you comfort me with emptiness, when your answers remain nothing but treachery?"