⁷ Do you think you were the first person born?
    Were you there when God made the mountains?
⁸ Did you overhear the plans God made?
    Does human wisdom belong to you alone?
⁹ There is nothing you know that we don't know.
¹⁰ We learned our wisdom from gray-haired people—
    those born before your father.

¹¹ God offers you comfort; why still reject it?
    We have spoken for him with calm, even words.
¹² But you are excited and glare at us in anger.
¹³ You are angry with God and denounce him.

^14 (B)Can any human being be really pure?
    Can anyone be right with God?
¹⁵ Why, God does not trust even his angels;
    even they are not pure in his sight.
¹⁶ And we drink evil as if it were water;
    yes, we are corrupt; we are worthless.

¹⁷ Now listen, Job, to what I know.
¹⁸ Those who are wise have taught me truths
    which they learned from their ancestors,
    and they kept no secrets hidden.
¹⁹ Their land was free from foreigners;
    there was no one to lead them away from God.

²⁰ The wicked who oppress others
    will be in torment as long as they live.
²¹ Voices of terror will scream in their ears,
    and robbers attack when they think they are safe.
²² They have no hope of escaping from darkness,
    for somewhere a sword is waiting to kill them,
²³     and vultures^[a] are waiting^[b] to eat their corpses.
They know their future is dark;
²⁴     disaster, like a powerful king,
    is waiting to attack them.

²⁵ That is the fate of those
    who shake their fists at God
    and defy the Almighty.
^26-27 They are proud and rebellious;
    they stubbornly hold up their shields
    and rush to fight against God.

²⁸ They are the ones who captured cities
    and seized houses whose owners had fled,
    but war will destroy those cities and houses.
²⁹ They will not remain rich for long;
    nothing they own will last.
Even their shadows^[c] will vanish,
³⁰     and they will not escape from darkness.
They will be like trees
    whose branches are burned by fire,
    whose blossoms^[d] are blown away by the wind.
³¹ If they are foolish enough to trust in evil,
    then evil will be their reward.
³² Before their time is up they will wither,^[e]
    wither like a branch and never be green again.
³³ They will be like vines that lose their unripe grapes;
    like olive trees that drop their blossoms.
³⁴ There will be no descendants for godless people,
    and fire will destroy the homes built by bribery.
³⁵ These are the ones who plan trouble and do evil;
    their hearts are always full of deceit.