21Then Job answered: 2“Listen carefully to my words, and let this be your consolation. 3Bear with me, and I will speak; then after I have spoken, mock on. 4As for me, is my complaint addressed to mortals? Why should I not be impatient? 5Look at me, and be appalled, and lay your hand upon your mouth. 6When I think of it I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh.
7Why do the wicked live on, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? 8Their children are established in their presence, and their offspring before their eyes. 9Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them. 10Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and never miscarries. 11They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children dance around. 12They sing to the tambourine and the lyre, and rejoice to the sound of the pipe. 13They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol. 14They say to God, ‘Leave us alone! We do not desire to know your ways. 15What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’ 16Is not their prosperity indeed their own achievement? The plans of the wicked are repugnant to me.
17“How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does calamity come upon them? How often does God distribute pains in his anger? 18How often are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away? 19You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’ Let it be paid back to them, so that they may know it. 20Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty. 21For what do they care for their household after them, when the number of their months is cut off? 22Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those that are on high? 23One dies in full prosperity, being wholly at ease and secure, 24his loins full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist. 25Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of good. 26They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them.
27“Oh, I know your thoughts, and your schemes to wrong me. 28For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’ 29Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony, 30that the wicked are spared in the day of calamity, and are rescued in the day of wrath? 31Who declares their way to their face, and who repays them for what they have done? 32When they are carried to the grave, a watch is kept over their tomb. 33The clods of the valley are sweet to them; everyone will follow after, and those who went before are innumerable. 34How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”
22Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: 2“Can a mortal be of use to God? Can even the wisest be of service to him? 3Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless? 4Is it for your piety that he reproves you, and enters into judgment with you?
5Is not your wickedness great? There is no end to your iniquities. 6For you have exacted pledges from your family for no reason, and stripped the naked of their clothing. 7You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. 8The powerful possess the land, and the favored live in it. 9You have sent widows away empty-handed, and the arms of the orphans you have crushed. 10Therefore snares are around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you, 11or darkness so that you cannot see; a flood of water covers you. 12“Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are! 13Therefore you say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness? 14Thick clouds enwrap him, so that he does not see, and he walks on the dome of heaven.’
15Will you keep to the old way that the wicked have trod? 16They were snatched away before their time; their foundation was washed away by a flood. 17They said to God, ‘Leave us alone,’ and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’ 18Yet he filled their houses with good things— but the plans of the wicked are repugnant to me. 19The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent laugh them to scorn, 20saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off, and what they left, the fire has consumed.’
21“Agree with God, and be at peace; in this way good will come to you. 22Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart. 23If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored, if you remove unrighteousness from your tents, 24if you treat gold like dust, and gold of Ophir like the stones of the torrent-bed, 25and if the Almighty is your gold and your precious silver, 26then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God. 27You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will pay your vows. 28You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways. 29When others are humiliated, you say it is pride; for he saves the humble. 30He will deliver even those who are guilty; they will escape because of the cleanness of your hands.”
From the oremus Bible Browser https://bible.oremus.org v2.9.2 30 June 2021.