1 Then Job replied ⌞to his friends⌟,
2 “Listen carefully to my words,
3 Bear with me while I speak.
4 Am I complaining about a person?
5 Look at me, and be shocked,
6 When I remember it, I’m terrified,
7 “Why do the wicked go on living, grow old,
8 They see their children firmly established with them,
9 Their homes are free from fear,
10 Their bulls are fertile when they breed.
11 They send their little children out ⌞to play⌟
12 They sing with the tambourine and lyre,
13 They spend their days in happiness,
14 But they say to God,
15 Who is the Almighty that we should serve him?
16 Anyhow, isn’t their happiness in their own power?
17 “How often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?
18 How often are they like straw in the wind
19 “⌞You say,⌟ ‘God saves a person’s punishment for his children.’
20 His eyes should see his own ruin.
21 How can he be interested in his family after he’s gone,
22 “Can anyone teach God knowledge?
23 One person dies in his prime
24 His stomach is full of milk,
25 Another person, never having tasted happiness,
26 Together they lie down in the dust,
27 “You see, I know your thoughts
28 because you ask,
29 Haven’t you asked travelers?
30 On the day of disaster the wicked person is spared.
31 Who will tell him to his face how he lived?
32 He is carried to the cemetery,
33 The soil in the creekbed is sweet to him.
34 How can you comfort me with this nonsense