[1] Then Job spoke again:
[2] “Listen closely to what I am saying. That’s one consolation you can give me.
[3] Bear with me, and let me speak. After I have spoken, you may resume mocking me.
[4] “My complaint is with God, not with people. I have good reason to be so impatient.
[5] Look at me and be stunned. Put your hand over your mouth in shock.
[6] When I think about what I am saying, I shudder. My body trembles.
[7] “Why do the wicked prosper, growing old and powerful?
[8] They live to see their children grow up and settle down, and they enjoy their grandchildren.
[9] Their homes are safe from every fear, and God does not punish them.
[10] Their bulls never fail to breed. Their cows bear calves and never miscarry.
[11] They let their children frisk about like lambs. Their little ones skip and dance.
[12] They sing with tambourine and harp. They celebrate to the sound of the flute.
[13] They spend their days in prosperity, then go down to the grave in peace.
[14] And yet they say to God, ‘Go away. We want no part of you and your ways.
[15] Who is the Almighty, and why should we obey him? What good will it do us to pray?’
[16] (They think their prosperity is of their own doing, but I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.)
[17] “Yet the light of the wicked never seems to be extinguished. Do they ever have trouble? Does God distribute sorrows to them in anger?
[18] Are they driven before the wind like straw? Are they carried away by the storm like chaff? Not at all!
[19] “‘Well,’ you say, ‘at least God will punish their children!’ But I say he should punish the ones who sin, so that they understand his judgment.
[20] Let them see their destruction with their own eyes. Let them drink deeply of the anger of the Almighty.
[21] For they will not care what happens to their family after they are dead.
[22] “But who can teach a lesson to God, since he judges even the most powerful?
[23] One person dies in prosperity, completely comfortable and secure,
[24] the picture of good health, vigorous and fit.
[25] Another person dies in bitter poverty, never having tasted the good life.
[26] But both are buried in the same dust, both eaten by the same maggots.
[27] “Look, I know what you’re thinking. I know the schemes you plot against me.
[28] You will tell me of rich and wicked people whose houses have vanished because of their sins.
[29] But ask those who have been around, and they will tell you the truth.
[30] Evil people are spared in times of calamity and are allowed to escape disaster.
[31] No one criticizes them openly or pays them back for what they have done.
[32] When they are carried to the grave, an honor guard keeps watch at their tomb.
[33] A great funeral procession goes to the cemetery. Many pay their respects as the body is laid to rest, and the earth gives sweet repose.
[34] “How can your empty clichés comfort me? All your explanations are lies!”