1Then Job answered,
2“Listen carefully to what I say. Let this be your comfort.
3Let me speak, and then, after I have spoken, you can mock me.
4Is my complaint against other people? Why shouldn't I be impatient?
5Look at me and be shocked. Put your hand over your mouth.
6When I remember these things, I am disturbed. My body trembles with horror.
7“Why do wicked people live long, grow old, and become powerful?
8Their children are established with them while they are still alive, and their descendants are right before their eyes.
9Their homes are safe and free from fear; God's punishment does not affect them.
10Their bulls are always fertile. Their cows give birth and never miscarry.
11They send out their children like a flock of sheep, and their little ones dance.
12They sing with tambourines and harps, and celebrate to the sound of flutes.
13They live their lives in prosperity, and then in an instant, they go down to the place of the dead.
14They tell God, 'Leave us alone, because we don't want to know your ways.'
15They ask, 'Who is the Almighty that we should serve him? What would we gain if we prayed to him?'
16Look, their prosperity is not in their own hands. I want nothing to do with the advice of the wicked.
17How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? How often do disasters strike them? How often does God, in his anger, bring sorrow upon them?
18How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff that a storm carries away?
19You say, 'God saves up a man's punishment for his children.' No, God should punish the man himself, so he knows it firsthand.
20Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink from the wrath of the Almighty.
21For what does he care about his family after he is gone, when his life is cut short?
22Can anyone teach God anything, since he judges even those in high places?
23One person dies in full health, completely at ease and peaceful.
24His milking pails are full of milk, and his bones are strong and healthy.
25Another person dies with a bitter soul, never having experienced anything good.
26Both of them end up lying in the dust, covered by worms.
27Look, I know what you are thinking, and the schemes you plan to use against me.
28For you ask, 'Where is the house of the powerful man? Where is the tent where the wicked lived?'
29Haven’t you asked travelers? Don’t you know their proof
30that wicked people are kept for a day of disaster, that they are led out to the day of anger?
31Who will tell him to his face about his conduct? Who will pay him back for what he has done?
32Yet he will be carried to the grave, and people will watch over his tomb.
33The dirt clods of the valley will feel sweet to him. Everyone will follow after him, just as countless others went before him.
34So how can you comfort me with empty words, since your answers are nothing but lies?”