• Job’s Discourse on the Wicked

  • 1 Then Job answered and said:
  • 2 “Listen carefully to my speech, And let this be your consolation.
  • 3 Bear with me that I may speak, And after I have spoken, keep mocking.
  • 4 “As for me, is my complaint against man? And if it were, why should I not be impatient?
  • 5 Look at me and be astonished; Put your hand over your mouth.
  • 6 Even when I remember I am terrified, And trembling takes hold of my flesh.
  • 7 Why do the wicked live and become old, Yes, become mighty in power?
  • 8 Their descendants are established with them in their sight, And their offspring before their eyes.
  • 9 Their houses are safe from fear, Neither is the rod of God upon them.
  • 10 Their bull breeds without failure; Their cow calves without miscarriage.
  • 11 They send forth their little ones like a flock, And their children dance.
  • 12 They sing to the tambourine and harp, And rejoice to the sound of the flute.
  • 13 They spend their days in wealth, And in a moment go down to the grave.
  • 14 Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us, For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.
  • 15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?’
  • 16 Indeed their prosperity is not in their hand; The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
  • 17 “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their destruction come upon them, The sorrows God distributes in His anger?
  • 18 They are like straw before the wind, And like chaff that a storm carries away.
  • 19 They say, ‘God lays up one’s iniquity for his children’; Let Him recompense him, that he may know it.
  • 20 Let his eyes see his destruction, And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
  • 21 For what does he care about his household after him, When the number of his months is cut in half?
  • 22 “Can anyone teach God knowledge, Since He judges those on high?
  • 23 One dies in his full strength, Being wholly at ease and secure;
  • 24 His pails are full of milk, And the marrow of his bones is moist.
  • 25 Another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, Never having eaten with pleasure.
  • 26 They lie down alike in the dust, And worms cover them.
  • 27 “Look, I know your thoughts, And the schemes with which you would wrong me.
  • 28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? And where is the tent, The dwelling place of the wicked?’
  • 29 Have you not asked those who travel the road? And do you not know their signs?
  • 30 For the wicked are reserved for the day of doom; They shall be brought out on the day of wrath.
  • 31 Who condemns his way to his face? And who repays him for what he has done?
  • 32 Yet he shall be brought to the grave, And a vigil kept over the tomb.
  • 33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him; Everyone shall follow him, As countless have gone before him.
  • 34 How then can you comfort me with empty words, Since falsehood remains in your answers?”