1 Then Job answered:
2 “Listen carefully to my words; let this be your consolation to me. | TOSK |
3 Bear with me while I speak; then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking. | TOSK |
4 Is my complaint against a man? Then why should I not be impatient? | TOSK |
5 Look at me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth. | TOSK |
6 When I remember, terror takes hold, and my body trembles in horror. | TOSK |
7 Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power? | TOSK |
8 Their descendants are established around them, and their offspring before their eyes. | TOSK |
9 Their homes are safe from fear; no rod of punishment from God is upon them. | TOSK |
10 Their bulls breed without fail; their cows bear calves and do not miscarry. | TOSK |
11 They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about, | TOSK |
12 singing to the tambourine and lyre and making merry at the sound of the flute. | TOSK |
13 They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace. | TOSK |
14 Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways. | TOSK |
15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’ | TOSK |
16 Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked. | TOSK |
17 How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come upon them? Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction? | TOSK |
18 Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm? | TOSK |
19 It is said that God lays up one's punishment for his children. Let God repay the man himself, so he will know it. | IP¹ | IP² | TOSK |
20 Let his eyes see his own destruction; let him drink for himself the wrath of the Almighty. | TOSK |
21 For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months has run out? | TOSK |
22 Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since He judges those on high? | TOSK |
23 One man dies full of vigor, completely secure and at ease. | TOSK |
24 His body is well nourished, and his bones are rich with marrow. | TOSK |
25 Yet another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, having never tasted prosperity. | TOSK |
26 But together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both. | TOSK |
27 Behold, I know your thoughts full well, the schemes by which you would wrong me. | TOSK |
28 For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’ | TOSK |
29 Have you never asked those who travel the roads? Do you not accept their reports? | TOSK |
30 Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath. | TOSK |
31 Who denounces his behavior to his face? Who repays him for what he has done? | TOSK |
32 He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb. | TOSK |
33 The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number. | TOSK |
34 So how can you comfort me with empty words? For your answers remain full of falsehood.” | TOSK |