¹ Then Job answered, and said,

² Hear diligently my speech, And let this be your consolations.

³ Allow me, and I also will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.

⁴ As for me, is my complaint to man? And why should I not be impatient?

⁵ Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.

⁶ Even when I remember, I am troubled, and horror takes hold on my flesh.

⁷ Why do the wicked live, become old, yea, grow mighty in power?

⁸ Their seed is established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes.

⁹ Their houses are safe from fear, nor is the rod of God upon them.

¹⁰ Their bull breeds, and does not fail. Their cow brings forth safely, and does not miscarry.

¹¹ They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.

¹² They sing to the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.

¹³ They spend their days in prosperity, and in a moment they go down to Sheol.

¹⁴ And they say to God, Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of thy ways.

¹⁵ What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what profit should we have, if we pray to him?

¹⁶ Lo, is their prosperity not in their hand. (The counsel of the wicked is far from me.)

¹⁷ How often is it that the lamp of the profane is put out, that their calamity comes upon them, that God distributes sorrows in his anger,

¹⁸ that they are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carries away?

¹⁹ Ye say, God lays up his iniquity for his sons. Let him recompense it to himself that he may know it.

²⁰ Let his own eyes see his destruction, and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

²¹ For what does he care for his house after him when the number of his months is cut off?

²² Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing he judges those who are high?

²³ One man dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

²⁴ His pails are full of milk, and the marrow of his bones is moistened.

²⁵ And another man dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.

²⁶ They lie down alike in the dust, and the worm covers them.

²⁷ Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices with which ye would wrong me.

²⁸ For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? And where is the tent in which the wicked dwelt?

²⁹ Have ye not asked wayfaring men? And do ye not know their evidences,

³⁰ that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity? That they are led forth to the day of wrath?

³¹ Who shall declare his way to his face? And who shall repay him what he has done?

³² Yet he shall be borne to the grave, and men shall keep watch over the tomb.

³³ The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. And all men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.

³⁴ How then ye comfort me in vain, seeing in your answers there remains falsehood?