The Book of Job

And Job answered and said:

Listen carefully to my speech, and let this be your comfort;

Rise with me and I shall speak; then after I have spoken, you may mock.

[As for] me, is my complaint to man? And why should not my spirit be short?

Turn toward me and be astonished, and put [your] hand on [your] mouth.

And if I remember, I am dismayed; and trembling seizes on my flesh.

Why do the wicked live? They grow old, and become mighty [in] power.

Their seed is established with them before their face, and their offspring before their eyes.

Their houses [are] in peace, without fear; nor [is] God's rod on them.

His bull passes [semen] and does not fail; his cow calves and does not miscarry.

They send their little ones out as a flock; and their children dance.

They lift up [voice] at the timbrel and lyre, and rejoice at the sound of the flute.

They spend their days in good, and in a moment go down [to] Sheol.

And they say to God, Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.

What [is] the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what do we profit if we entreat Him?

How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, and their calamity comes on them! He shares out pangs in His anger;

they are as straw before the wind, and as chaff [that] the tempest steals away.

God stores up his iniquity for his sons; He repays him, and he knows.

His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

For what [is] his delight in his house after him, and his number of months is cut off.

Shall [any] teach God knowledge, since He shall judge the exalted?

One dies in his full strength, wholly secure and at ease;

his sides are full of milk, and his bones are wet with marrow.

And another dies with bitter soul, and never eats with pleasure;

they lie down together on the dust, and the worms shall cover over them.

Behold, I know your thoughts, and the plots you would wrongfully do against me;

for you say, Where [is] the house of the noble, and where the tent, the dwellings of the wicked?

[Did] you not ask those who go along the highway; and do you not know their signs?

For the wicked is kept for the day of calamity; they shall be brought to the day of wrath.

Who shall declare his way to his face? And who repays him for [what] he has done?

Yet he shall be brought to the graves, and watch shall be kept over [his] tomb.

And the clods of the valley shall be sweet to him; and every man shall draw after him; and there is not [any] number before him.

How then do you comfort me with vanity? Yea, in your answers remains treachery.