Job: why do the wicked go on living?
1Then Job answered: 2Listen closely to what I say, and let that be your consolation. 3Bear with me while I speak, and after I have spoken, go on mocking. 4Is my complaint against a man? Why should I not run short of patience? 5Turn to me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth. 6When I remember it, I am shaken, and shuddering takes hold of my flesh. 7Why do the wicked go on living, grow old, and grow mighty in strength? 8Their offspring are settled around them, in their sight, and their children stand before their eyes. 9Their houses are at peace, without fear, and the rod of Eloah is not on them. 10Their bull breeds and never fails; their cow calves and does not miscarry. 11They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children go dancing. 12They lift up the timbrel and the lyre and take delight in the sound of the pipe. 13They finish out their days in prosperity, and go down to Sheol in a moment. 14And they say to God, “Leave us alone! We have no wish to know your ways. 15What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by pressing him with prayer?” 16Look, their prosperity is not in their own hands. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
17How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their ruin come upon them, and he deals out pains in his anger? 18They are straw before the wind, chaff that the storm has stolen away. 19Eloah stores up his punishment for his sons — let him repay him, so that he knows it! 20Let his own eyes see his ruin; let him drink from the wrath of the Almighty. 21For what does he care about his house after him, once the number of his months is cut through? 22Can anyone teach God knowledge, when it is he who judges those on high? 23One dies in his full vigor, wholly at ease and undisturbed, 24his pails brimming with milk and the marrow of his bones still moist; 25and another dies with a bitter soul, never having tasted anything good. 26Together they lie down in the dust, and the worm covers them both. 27Look, I know what you are thinking, and the schemes you use to wrong me. 28For you say, “Where is the nobleman’s house? Where is the tent the wicked lived in?” 29Have you never asked those who travel the roads? Do you not recognize the evidence they bring — 30that the evil one is spared for the day of ruin, led away on the day of wrath? 31Who denounces his way to his face? Who repays him for what he has done? 32He is carried out to the graves, and a watch is kept over his tomb. 33The clods of the wadi lie sweet on him. Every man is drawn along after him, and before him went a line without number. 34So how can you comfort me with empty air, when nothing is left of your answers but betrayal?
