New Living Translation

English Standard Version

1Then Job spoke again:

1Then Job answered and said:

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

2“Keep listening to my words, and let this be your comfort.

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

3Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.

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

4As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient?

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

5Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth.

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

6When I remember, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh.

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

7Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?

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

8Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes.

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

9Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them.

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

10Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and does not miscarry.

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

11They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance.

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

12They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

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

13They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol.

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

14They say to God, ‘Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.

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

15What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’

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

16Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

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?

17“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger?

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

18That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?

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.

19You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’ Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.

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

20Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

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

21For what do they care for their houses after them, when the number of their months is cut off?

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

22Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those who are on high?

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

23One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure,

24the picture of good health, vigorous and fit.

24his pails full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist.

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

25Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity.

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

26They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them.

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

27“Behold, I know your thoughts and your schemes to wrong me.

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

28For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’

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

29Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony

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

30that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath?

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

31Who declares his way to his face, and who repays him for what he has done?

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

32When he is carried to the grave, watch is kept over his 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.

33The clods of the valley are sweet to him; all mankind follows after him, and those who go before him are innumerable.

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

34How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.