Job

2 “Do hear what I have to say,

and let this be your comforting.

3 Bear me, and I myself will speak;

and after I speak you shall make your fun.

4 Is my grievance against man?

and how should I not be impatient?

5 Face toward me and stand aghast

and lay your hands over your mouths!

6* And if I bethink myself I am in consternation,

and a shudder seizes my flesh.

7 How comes it that wrong-doers live,

come to advanced age and are still notably robust?

8* Their posterity is firmly established before them;

their offspring is numerous under their eyes.

9 Their houses are at peace from dread,

and God’s cudgel is not on them.

10 His bull covers and does not miss,

his cow calves and does not slink.

11 They let out their brats like sheep and goats,

and their children caper about.

12* They sing with tambourine and lyre

and make merry to the sound of the pipe.

13 They wear out their days in comfort,

and all of a sudden they go down to the world below.

14 And they have said to the Deity ‘Get out of our way,

we do not care to know your courses.

15 What is Shaddai that we should worship him,

and what good should we do when we invoked him?’

16 Here it is not in their hands that their comfort lies,

wrong-doers’ principles are far from him—

17 How often do wrong-doers’ lamps go out

and their calamity come upon them,

cords grip them by his anger,

18 Do they become like straw before a wind

and like chaff that a gale filches?

19* Let him not lay his misfortune away for his sons;

let him pay it up to himself and let him know it.

20* Let his eyes see his calamity

and let him drink ire of Shaddai.

21 For what concern has he for his family after him,

when his number of months has been cut off?

22 —Should one teach the Deity knowledge,

when it is he judges those on high?

23 This one dies in perfect soundness,

all quiet and at ease,

24 His crocks are full of milk

and the marrow of his bones has its drink,

25 And that one dies in bitter soul

and has never eaten a comfortable meal;

26 Together they lie down on the clay

and maggots cover them over.

27 Here, I know your ideas

and such designs as you contemplate against me,

28 That you say ‘Where is an aristocrat’s house?

and where are wrong-doers’ dwellings?’

29 Have you not asked travelers,

and do you not recognize their tokens?

30** That the bad man is kept back on the day of calamity,

gets the better of the day of wrath?

31 And who tells him of his course to his face?

and if he has done a thing who pays him back?

32* And he is brought to burial

and his mound is attended to.

33 Arroyo clods are sweet to him,

and all men pour along after him

and innumerable before him.

34 And how are you to comfort me with thin air,

when your answers sift down to unreliability?”