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- Then Job answered and said:
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- Hear diligently my speech;
and let this be your consolations.
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- Suffer me, that I may speak;
and after that I have spoken, mock on.
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- As for me, is my complaint to man?
Or why should I not be impatient?
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- Turn unto me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.
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- Even when I remember I am affrighted, and horror hath taketh hold on my flesh.
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- Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, wax mighty in power?
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- Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.
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- Their houses are safe, without fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.
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- Their bull gendereth, and faileth not;
their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.
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- They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
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- They sing to the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
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- They spend their days in prosperity, and peacefully they go down to the grave.
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- Yet they said unto God: "Depart from us;
for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.
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- What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?
And what profit should we have, if we pray unto Him?" -
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- Lo, their prosperity is not in their hand;
the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
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- How oft is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?
that their calamity cometh upon them?
that He distributeth pains in His anger?
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- That they are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm stealeth away?
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- "God layeth up his iniquity for his children!" - let Him recompense it unto himself, that he may know it.
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- Let his own eyes see his destruction, and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
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- For what pleasure hath he in his house after him?
seeing the number of his months is determined.
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- Shall any teach God knowledge?
seeing it is He that judgeth those that are high.
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- One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet;
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- His pails are full of milk, and the marrow of his bones is moistened.
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- And another dieth in bitterness of soul, and hath never tasted of good.
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- They lie down alike in the dust, and the worm covereth them.
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- Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.
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- For ye say: "Where is the house of the prince?
And where is the tent wherein the wicked dwelt?"
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- Have ye not asked them that go by the way;
and will ye misdeem their tokens,
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- That the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, that they are led forth to the day of wrath?
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- But who shall declare his way to his face?
And who shall repay him what he hath done?
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- For he is borne to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.
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- The clods of the valley are sweet unto him, and all men draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.
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- How then comfort ye me in vain?
And as for your answers, there remaineth only faithlessness?
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