1 But Job answered and said,
2 Hear diligently my speech, and let this be instead of your consolations.
3 Suffer me that I may speak; and after I have spoken, mock on.
4 As for me, is my complaint to man? And if so, why should not my spirit be troubled?
5 Look upon me and be astonished and lay your hand upon your mouth.
6 Even I myself, when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling takes hold on my flesh.
7 Why do the wicked live and become old and even increase in riches?
8 Their seed is with them, established in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes.
9 Their houses are safe from fear; neither is the rod of God upon them.
10 Their cows conceive, and do not abort; their cows calve and do not cast forth their young.
11 They send forth their little ones like a flock of sheep, and their children dance.
12 They jump at the sound of the timbrel and harp and rejoice at the sound of the organ.
13 They spend their days in pleasure and in a moment go down to Sheol.
14 Therefore, they say unto God, Depart from us; for we do not desire the knowledge of thy ways.
15 Who is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what profit should we have if we pray unto him?
16 Behold that their good is not in their hands; the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17 How often is the lamp of the wicked put out and their destruction comes upon them, and God distributes sorrows upon them in his anger.
18 They shall be as stubble before the wind and as chaff taken up by the whirlwind.
19 God shall lay up his violence for their sons; and he will reward him so that he shall know it.
20 His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what delight shall he have in his house after him, being cut off in the number of his months?
22 Shall he teach God knowledge, seeing he judges those that are high?
23 This one shall die in the full strength of his beauty, being completely at ease and quiet.
24 His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow.
25 And another dies in the bitterness of his soul, never having eaten with pleasure.
26 They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.
27 Behold, I know your thoughts and the imaginations which ye devise against me.
28 For ye say, What is of the house of the prince, and what of the tent of the habitation of the wicked?
29 Have ye not asked those that go by the way, and do ye not know their tokens?
30 That the wicked is reserved for the day of destruction, they shall be brought 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 He shall yet be brought to the grave and shall remain in the tomb.
33 The clods of the river valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall be drawn after him, as there were innumerable before him.
34 How then do ye comfort me in vain, given that your answers remain as falsehood?