| 1 | And Job answered and said, |
| 2 | Hear attentively my speech, and let this replace your consolations. |
| 3 | Suffer me and I will speak; and after I have spoken, mock on! |
| 4 | As for me, is my complaint to a man? or wherefore should not my spirit be impatient? |
| 5 | Mark me, and be astonished, and lay the hand upon the mouth. |
| 6 | Even when I think [thereon], I am affrighted, and trembling taketh hold of my flesh. |
| 7 | Wherefore do the wicked live, grow old, yea, become mighty in power? |
| 8 | Their seed is established with them 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 bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. |
| 11 | They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. |
| 12 | They shout to the tambour and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe. |
| 13 | They spend their days in prosperity, and in a moment go down to Sheol. |
| 14 | And they say unto �God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways! |
| 15 | What is the Almighty that we should serve him? and what are we profited if we pray unto him? |
| 16 | Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked be far from me! |
| 17 | How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, and cometh their calamity upon them? Doth he distribute sorrows [to them] in his anger? |
| 18 | Do they become as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away? |
| 19 | +God layeth up [the punishment of] his iniquity for his children; he rewardeth him, and he shall know [it]: |
| 20 | His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the fury of the Almighty. |
| 21 | For what pleasure should he have in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off? |
| 22 | Can any teach �God knowledge? And he it is that judgeth those that are high. |
| 23 | One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet; |
| 24 | His sides are full of fat, and the marrow of his bones is moistened; |
| 25 | And another dieth in bitterness of soul, and hath not tasted good: |
| 26 | Together they lie down in the dust, and the worms cover them. |
| 27 | Lo, I know your thoughts, and the devices ye wrongfully imagine against me. |
| 28 | For ye say, Where is the house of the noble? and where the tent of the dwellings of the wicked? |
| 29 | Have ye not asked the wayfarers? and do ye not regard their tokens: |
| 30 | That the wicked is reserved for the day of calamity? They are led forth to the day of wrath. |
| 31 | Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done? |
| 32 | Yet is he carried to the graves, and watch is kept over the tomb. |
| 33 | The clods of the valley are sweet unto him; and every man followeth suit after him, as there were innumerable before him. |
| 34 | How then comfort ye me in vain? Your answers remain perfidious. |