¹⁴ Yet they say to God, ‘Leave us alone!^(A)
    We have no desire to know your ways.^(B)
15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
    What would we gain by praying to him?’^(C)
16 But their prosperity is not in their own hands,
    so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked.^(D)

¹⁷ “Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?^(E)
    How often does calamity^(F) come upon them,
    the fate God allots in his anger?^(G)
18 How often are they like straw before the wind,
    like chaff^(H) swept away^(I) by a gale?^(J)
19 It is said, ‘God stores up the punishment of the wicked for their children.’^(K)
    Let him repay the wicked, so that they themselves will experience it!^(L)
20 Let their own eyes see their destruction;^(M)
    let them drink^(N) the cup of the wrath of the Almighty.^(O)
21 For what do they care about the families they leave behind^(P)
    when their allotted months^(Q) come to an end?^(R)

²² “Can anyone teach knowledge to God,^(S)
    since he judges even the highest?^(T)
23 One person dies in full vigor,^(U)
    completely secure and at ease,^(V)
24 well nourished^(W) in body,^[a]
    bones^(X) rich with marrow.^(Y)
25 Another dies in bitterness of soul,^(Z)
    never having enjoyed anything good.
²⁶ Side by side they lie in the dust,^(AA)
    and worms^(AB) cover them both.^(AC)

²⁷ “I know full well what you are thinking,
    the schemes by which you would wrong me.
²⁸ You say, ‘Where now is the house of the great,^(AD)
    the tents where the wicked lived?’^(AE)
29 Have you never questioned those who travel?
    Have you paid no regard to their accounts—
³⁰ that the wicked are spared from the day of calamity,^(AF)
    that they are delivered from^[b] the day of wrath?^(AG)
31 Who denounces their conduct to their face?
    Who repays them for what they have done?^(AH)
32 They are carried to the grave,
    and watch is kept over their tombs.^(AI)
33 The soil in the valley is sweet to them;^(AJ)
    everyone follows after them,
    and a countless throng goes^[c] before them.^(AK)

³⁴ “So how can you console me^(AL) with your nonsense?
    Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!”^(AM)