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¹Then Job spoke again:

²“Listen closely to what I am saying. That’s one consolation you can give me.

³Bear with me, and let me speak. After I have spoken, you may resume mocking me.

⁴“My complaint is with God, not with people. I have good reason to be so impatient.

⁵Look at me and be stunned. Put your hand over your mouth in shock.

⁶When I think about what I am saying, I shudder. My body trembles.

⁷“Why do the wicked prosper, growing old and powerful?

⁸They live to see their children grow up and settle down, and they enjoy their grandchildren.

⁹Their homes are safe from every fear, and God does not punish them.

¹⁰Their bulls never fail to breed. Their cows bear calves and never miscarry.

¹¹They let their children frisk about like lambs. Their little ones skip and dance.

¹²They sing with tambourine and harp. They celebrate to the sound of the flute.

¹³They spend their days in prosperity, then go down to the grave in peace.

¹⁴And yet they say to God, ‘Go away. We want no part of you and your ways.

¹⁵Who is the Almighty, and why should we obey him? What good will it do us to pray?’

¹⁶(They think their prosperity is of their own doing, but I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.)

¹⁷“Yet the light of the wicked never seems to be extinguished. Do they ever have trouble? Does God distribute sorrows to them in anger?

¹⁸Are they driven before the wind like straw? Are they carried away by the storm like chaff? Not at all!

¹⁹“‘Well,’ you say, ‘at least God will punish their children!’ But I say he should punish the ones who sin, so that they understand his judgment.

²⁰Let them see their destruction with their own eyes. Let them drink deeply of the anger of the Almighty.

²¹For they will not care what happens to their family after they are dead.

²²“But who can teach a lesson to God, since he judges even the most powerful?

²³One person dies in prosperity, completely comfortable and secure,

²⁴the picture of good health, vigorous and fit.

²⁵Another person dies in bitter poverty, never having tasted the good life.

²⁶But both are buried in the same dust, both eaten by the same maggots.

²⁷“Look, I know what you’re thinking. I know the schemes you plot against me.

²⁸You will tell me of rich and wicked people whose houses have vanished because of their sins.

²⁹But ask those who have been around, and they will tell you the truth.

³⁰Evil people are spared in times of calamity and are allowed to escape disaster.

³¹No one criticizes them openly or pays them back for what they have done.

³²When they are carried to the grave, an honor guard keeps watch at their tomb.

³³A great funeral procession goes to the cemetery. Many pay their respects as the body is laid to rest, and the earth gives sweet repose.

³⁴“How can your empty clichés comfort me? All your explanations are lies!”

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²“Can a person do anything to help God? Can even a wise person be helpful to him?

³Is it any advantage to the Almighty if you are righteous? Would it be any gain to him if you were perfect?

⁴Is it because you’re so pious that he accuses you and brings judgment against you?

⁵No, it’s because of your wickedness! There’s no limit to your sins.

⁶“For example, you must have lent money to your friend and demanded clothing as security. Yes, you stripped him to the bone.

⁷You must have refused water for the thirsty and food for the hungry.

⁸You probably think the land belongs to the powerful and only the privileged have a right to it!

⁹You must have sent widows away empty-handed and crushed the hopes of orphans.

¹⁰That is why you are surrounded by traps and tremble from sudden fears.

¹¹That is why you cannot see in the darkness, and waves of water cover you.

¹²“God is so great — higher than the heavens, higher than the farthest stars.

¹³But you reply, ‘That’s why God can’t see what I am doing! How can he judge through the thick darkness?

¹⁴For thick clouds swirl about him, and he cannot see us. He is way up there, walking on the vault of heaven.’

¹⁵“Will you continue on the old paths where evil people have walked?

¹⁶They were snatched away in the prime of life, the foundations of their lives washed away.

¹⁷For they said to God, ‘Leave us alone! What can the Almighty do to us?’

¹⁸Yet he was the one who filled their homes with good things, so I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.

¹⁹“The righteous will be happy to see the wicked destroyed, and the innocent will laugh in contempt.

²⁰They will say, ‘See how our enemies have been destroyed. The last of them have been consumed in the fire.’

²¹“Submit to God, and you will have peace; then things will go well for you.

²²Listen to his instructions, and store them in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored — so clean up your life.

²⁴If you give up your lust for money and throw your precious gold into the river,

²⁵the Almighty himself will be your treasure. He will be your precious silver!

²⁶“Then you will take delight in the Almighty and look up to God.

²⁷You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows to him.

²⁸You will succeed in whatever you choose to do, and light will shine on the road ahead of you.

²⁹If people are in trouble and you say, ‘Help them,’ God will save them.

³⁰Even sinners will be rescued; they will be rescued because your hands are pure.”

¹Then Job spoke again:

²“My complaint today is still a bitter one, and I try hard not to groan aloud.

³If only I knew where to find God, I would go to his court.

⁴I would lay out my case and present my arguments.

⁵Then I would listen to his reply and understand what he says to me.

⁶Would he use his great power to argue with me? No, he would give me a fair hearing.

⁷Honest people can reason with him, so I would be forever acquitted by my judge.

⁸I go east, but he is not there. I go west, but I cannot find him.

⁹I do not see him in the north, for he is hidden. I look to the south, but he is concealed.

¹⁰“But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold.

¹¹For I have stayed on God’s paths; I have followed his ways and not turned aside.

¹²I have not departed from his commands, but have treasured his words more than daily food.

¹³But once he has made his decision, who can change his mind? Whatever he wants to do, he does.

¹⁴So he will do to me whatever he has planned. He controls my destiny.

¹⁵No wonder I am so terrified in his presence. When I think of it, terror grips me.

¹⁶God has made me sick at heart; the Almighty has terrified me.

¹⁷Darkness is all around me; thick, impenetrable darkness is everywhere.

¹“Why doesn’t the Almighty bring the wicked to judgment? Why must the godly wait for him in vain?

²Evil people steal land by moving the boundary markers. They steal livestock and put them in their own pastures.

³They take the orphan’s donkey and demand the widow’s ox as security for a loan.

⁴The poor are pushed off the path; the needy must hide together for safety.

⁵Like wild donkeys in the wilderness, the poor must spend all their time looking for food, searching even in the desert for food for their children.

⁶They harvest a field they do not own, and they glean in the vineyards of the wicked.

⁷All night they lie naked in the cold, without clothing or covering.

⁸They are soaked by mountain showers, and they huddle against the rocks for want of a home.

⁹“The wicked snatch a widow’s child from her breast, taking the baby as security for a loan.

¹⁰The poor must go about naked, without any clothing. They harvest food for others while they themselves are starving.

¹¹They press out olive oil without being allowed to taste it, and they tread in the winepress as they suffer from thirst.

¹²The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the wounded cry for help, yet God ignores their moaning.

¹³“Wicked people rebel against the light. They refuse to acknowledge its ways or stay in its paths.

¹⁴The murderer rises in the early dawn to kill the poor and needy; at night he is a thief.

¹⁵The adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No one will see me then.’ He hides his face so no one will know him.

¹⁶Thieves break into houses at night and sleep in the daytime. They are not acquainted with the light.

¹⁷The black night is their morning. They ally themselves with the terrors of the darkness.

¹⁸“But they disappear like foam down a river. Everything they own is cursed, and they are afraid to enter their own vineyards.

¹⁹The grave consumes sinners just as drought and heat consume snow.

²⁰Their own mothers will forget them. Maggots will find them sweet to eat. No one will remember them. Wicked people are broken like a tree in the storm.

²¹They cheat the woman who has no son to help her. They refuse to help the needy widow.

²²“God, in his power, drags away the rich. They may rise high, but they have no assurance of life.

²³They may be allowed to live in security, but God is always watching them.

²⁴And though they are great now, in a moment they will be gone like all others, cut off like heads of grain.

²⁵Can anyone claim otherwise? Who can prove me wrong?”