Study Desk

Job

Then Job replied:

"Listen carefully to my words;^(a) let this be the consolation you give me.^(b)

Bear with me while I speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.^(c)

"Is my complaint^(d) directed to a human being? Why should I not be impatient?^(e)

Look at me and be appalled; clap your hand over your mouth.^(f)

When I think about this, I am terrified;^(g) trembling seizes my body.^(h)

Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?⁽ⁱ⁾

They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes.^(j)

Their homes are safe and free from fear;^(k) the rod of God is not on them.^(l)

Their bulls never fail to breed; their cows calve and do not miscarry.^(m)

They send forth their children as a flock;⁽ⁿ⁾ their little ones dance about.

They sing to the music of timbrel and lyre;^(o) they make merry to the sound of the pipe.^(p)

They spend their years in prosperity^(q) and go down to the grave^(r) in peace.^[a](s)

Yet they say to God, ‘Leave us alone!^(t) We have no desire to know your ways.^(u)

Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?'^(v)

But their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked.^(w)

"Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?^(x) How often does calamity^(y) come upon them, the fate God allots in his anger?^(z)

How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff^(aa) swept away^(ab) by a gale?^(ac)

It is said, ‘God stores up the punishment of the wicked for their children.'^(ad) Let him repay the wicked, so that they themselves will experience it!^(ae)

Let their own eyes see their destruction;^(af) let them drink^(ag) the cup of the wrath of the Almighty.^(ah)

For what do they care about the families they leave behind^(ai) when their allotted months^(aj) come to an end?^(ak)

"Can anyone teach knowledge to God,^(al) since he judges even the highest?^(am)

One person dies in full vigor,^(an) completely secure and at ease,^(ao)

well nourished^(ap) in body,^[b] bones^(aq) rich with marrow.^(ar)

Another dies in bitterness of soul,^(as) never having enjoyed anything good.

Side by side they lie in the dust,^(at) and worms^(au) cover them both.^(av)

"I know full well what you are thinking, the schemes by which you would wrong me.

You say, ‘Where now is the house of the great,^(aw) the tents where the wicked lived?'^(ax)

Have you never questioned those who travel? Have you paid no regard to their accounts—

that the wicked are spared from the day of calamity,^(ay) that they are delivered from^[c] the day of wrath?^(az)

Who denounces their conduct to their face? Who repays them for what they have done?^(ba)

They are carried to the grave, and watch is kept over their tombs.^(bb)

The soil in the valley is sweet to them;^(bc) everyone follows after them, and a countless throng goes^[d] before them.^(bd)

"So how can you console me^(be) with your nonsense? Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!"^(bf)