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Job: God Will Punish the Wicked

Verse1Then Job answered:

Verse2“Listen carefully to my words; let this be your consolation to me.

Verse3Bear with me while I speak; then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking.

Verse4Is my complaint against a man? Then why should I not be impatient?

Verse5Look at me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth.

Verse6When I remember, terror takes hold, and my body trembles in horror.

Verse7Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?

Verse8Their descendants are established around them, and their offspring before their eyes.

Verse9Their homes are safe from fear; no rod of punishment from God is upon them.

Verse10Their bulls breed without fail; their cows bear calves and do not miscarry.

Verse11They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,

Verse12singing to the tambourine and lyre and making merry at the sound of the flute.

Verse13They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace.

Verse14Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways.

Verse15Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’

Verse16Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.

Verse17How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come upon them? Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction?

Verse18Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?

Verse19It is said that God lays up one’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the man himself, so he will know it.

Verse20Let his eyes see his own destruction; let him drink for himself the wrath of the Almighty.

Verse21For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months has run out?

Verse22Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since He judges those on high?

Verse23One man dies full of vigor, completely secure and at ease.

Verse24His body is well nourished, and his bones are rich with marrow.

Verse25Yet another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, having never tasted prosperity.

Verse26But together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both.

Verse27Behold, I know your thoughts full well, the schemes by which you would wrong me.

Verse28For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’

Verse29Have you never asked those who travel the roads? Do you not accept their reports?

Verse30Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.

Verse31Who denounces his behavior to his face? Who repays him for what he has done?

Verse32He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.

Verse33The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number.

Verse34So how can you comfort me with empty words? For your answers remain full of falsehood.”