¹Then Job answered: ²“Listen carefully to my words; ³Bear with me while I speak; ⁴Is my complaint against a man? ⁵Look at me and be appalled; ⁶When I remember, terror takes hold, ⁷Why do the wicked live on, ⁸Their descendants are established around them, ⁹Their homes are safe from fear; ¹⁰Their bulls breed without fail; ¹¹They send forth their little ones like a flock; ¹²singing to the tambourine and lyre ¹³They spend their days in prosperity ¹⁴Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! ¹⁵Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, ¹⁶Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands, ¹⁷How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? ¹⁸Are they like straw before the wind, ¹⁹It is said that God lays up one’s punishment for his children. ²⁰Let his eyes see his own destruction; ²¹For what does he care about his household after him, ²²Can anyone teach knowledge to God, ²³One man dies full of vigor, ²⁴His body is well nourished, ²⁵Yet another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, ²⁶But together they lie down in the dust, ²⁷Behold, I know your thoughts full well, ²⁸For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, ²⁹Have you never asked those who travel the roads? ³⁰Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, ³¹Who denounces his behavior to his face? ³²He is carried to the grave, ³³The clods of the valley are sweet to him; ³⁴So how can you comfort me with empty words?