² “Listen carefully to my words,
and let this be your^[b] consolation.
³ Bear with me, and I myself^[c] will speak;
then^[d] after my speaking you can mock.
⁴ As for me, is my complaint for human beings?
And if so, why cannot I be impatient?
⁵ Turn to me and be appalled,
and place your hand on your mouth.
⁶ And when I think of it, I am horrified,^[e]
and shuddering seizes my flesh.
⁷ “Why do the wicked live,
grow old, even grow mighty in power?
⁸ With them their offspring are established before them,^[f]
and their descendants before their eyes.
⁹ Their houses are safe without fear,
and the rod of God is not upon them.
¹⁰ His bull breeds and does not fail;
his cow calves and does not miscarry.
¹¹ They send out their little ones like the flock,
and their children dance around.
¹² They sing^[g] to the tambourine and lyre,
and they rejoice to the sound of the long flute.
¹³ They spend their days in prosperity,
and in peace they go down to Sheol.
¹⁴ And they say to God, ‘Turn away from us,
for^[h] we do not desire to know your ways.
¹⁵ Who is Shaddai that we should serve him,
or^[i] what would we benefit when we plead with him?’
¹⁶ Look, their prosperity is not in their hands;
the schemes of the wicked are repugnant^[j] to me.
¹⁷ “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out,
and their disaster comes upon them?
He^[k] distributes pains in his anger.
¹⁸ How often are they like straw before^[l] the wind,
and like chaff that the storm carries away?
¹⁹ ‘God stores up his iniquity for his children’?^[m]
Then let him repay it to him that^[n] he may know.
²⁰ Let his eyes see his decay,
and let him drink from the wrath of Shaddai,
²¹ for what does he care for^[o] his house after him,
when the number of his months is^[p] cut off?
²² Can anyone teach knowledge to God,
since^[q] he himself^[r] judges high ones?
²³ This one dies in full prosperity,^[s]
completely^[t] at ease and secure.
²⁴ His vats are full with milk
and the marrow of his bones is moist.
²⁵ Yet^[u] another dies with a bitter inner self^[v]
and has not tasted prosperity.
²⁶ They lie down together in the dust,
and maggots cover them.
²⁷ “Look, I know your^[w] thoughts
and the schemes you devise against me.
²⁸ For you say, ‘Where is the nobleman’s house,
and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’^[x]
29 Do you not ask those traveling the roads,
and do you not take notice of their accounts?
³⁰ Indeed, the wicked is spared from the day of disaster;
he is delivered from the day of wrath.
³¹ Who denounces his way to his face?
And who repays him for what he has done?
³² When^[y] he is brought to the grave,
then^[z] someone stands guard over the tomb.
³³ The clods of the valley are sweet to him;
everyone will follow after him,
and before^[aa] him they are innumerable.^[ab]
34 So^[ac] how will you comfort me with emptiness,
when^[ad] fraud is left in your answers?”