¹Then Job answered and said:

²Listen closely to my speech, and let this be your consolation.

³Bear with me, and I will speak; and after I have spoken, you may mock.

⁴As for me, is my complaint to a human? And if so, why should my breath not grow short?

⁵Turn to me and be appalled, and put a hand over the mouth.

⁶And if I remember, I am terrified, and shuddering takes hold of my flesh.

⁷Why do the wicked live, grow old, and even prevail in strength?

⁸Their seed is established before them, with them, and their descendants before their eyes.

⁹Their houses are whole, free of fear, and the rod of God is not upon them.

¹⁰His bull impregnates and does not loathe; his cow calves and does not miscarry.

¹¹They send out their young boys like the flock, and their children leap about.

¹²They lift up the tambourine and the lyre, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.

¹³They complete their days in good, and in an instant they go down to Sheol.

¹⁴They said to God, Depart from us; we take no delight in the knowledge of your ways.

¹⁵What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what do we gain by pleading with him?

¹⁶Behold, their good is not in their hand; the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁷How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, and does their disaster come upon them? Does he portion out pangs in his anger?

¹⁸Are they like straw before the face of the wind, like chaff that a storm-wind has stolen away?

¹⁹God stores up his trouble for his sons; let him repay it to the man himself, and he will know.

²⁰Let his own eyes see his calamity, and from the rage of the Almighty let him drink.

²¹For what is his pleasure in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?

²²Will anyone teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges the exalted ones?

²³This one dies in the very bone of his completeness, all of him at ease and quiet.

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

²⁵And that one dies with a bitter being, and has not eaten of the good.

²⁶Together they lie down upon the dust, and the maggot covers over them.

²⁷Behold, I know your thoughts, and the schemes you use to do me violence.

²⁸For you say, Where is the house of the noble one, and where is the tent of the dwelling places of the wicked?

²⁹Have you not asked those who pass along the road, and do you not recognize their signs?

³⁰That the evil one is spared for the day of calamity, and they are led out for the day of furies?

³¹Who will tell him his way to his face? And what he has done, who will repay him for it?

³²And he is borne to the graves, and someone keeps watch over the heaped tomb.

³³The clods of the wadi are sweet to him; and every person draws along after him, and before him there is no number.

³⁴How then will you comfort me with vapor, when of your answers only treachery is left?