Job: God Will Punish the Wicked
And Job answered and said:
Hear, hear my word; and let this be your comfortings.
Bear with me, and I myself will speak; and after I have spoken, you may mock.
As for me — is my complaint to a man? And if so, why should my spirit not be short?
Turn to me and be appalled, and put a hand on the mouth.
And when I remember, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh.
Why do the wicked live, grow old, and even become mighty in strength?
Their seed is established before them with them, and their offspring before their eyes.
Their houses are at peace, without dread, and the rod of God is not upon them.
His bull breeds and does not fail; his cow calves and does not miscarry.
They send out their young ones like a flock, and their children dance.
They lift up voice with tambourine and lyre, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
They finish their days in good, and in a moment go down to Sheol.
And they say to God, “Turn away from us; 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 meet him?”
Look — their good is not in their own hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
How often does the lamp of the wicked go out, and their calamity come upon them? Does he apportion pains in his anger?
Are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm steals away?
God stores up a man’s iniquity for his sons. Let him repay the man himself, and let him know it.
Let his own eyes see his ruin, and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
For what is his delight in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
Will anyone teach God knowledge, when he judges those on high?
This one dies in the fullness of his vigor, wholly at ease and quiet;
his pails are full of milk, and the marrow of his bones is watered.
And this one dies with a bitter soul, and has never eaten of the good.
Together they lie down in the dust, and the maggot covers them.
Look, I know your thoughts, and the schemes by which you would wrong me.
For you say, “Where is the house of the noble? And where is the tent of the dwellings of the wicked?”
Have you not asked those who pass along the road? And do you not recognize their signs —
that the evil man is spared for the day of calamity, that they are led out for the day of wrath?
Who declares his way to his face? And who repays him for what he has done?
And he is carried to the graves, and a watch is kept over his tomb.
The clods of the wadi are sweet to him; and after him all men are drawn along, and before him there is no number.
How then do you comfort me with emptiness? And your answers — what is left of them is treachery.