² “My thoughts are pressing me to answer;
I feel such an urge to speak!
³ I have heard reproof that outrages me,
but a spirit past my understanding gives me a reply.

⁴ “Don’t you know that ever since time began,
ever since humans were placed on earth,
⁵ that the triumph of the wicked is always short-lived,
and the joy of the ungodly is gone in a moment?
⁶ His pride may mount to the heavens,
his head may touch the clouds;
⁷ but he will vanish completely, like his own dung —
those who used to see him will ask, ‘Where is he?’
⁸ Like a dream he flies off and is not found again;
like a vision in the night he is chased away.
⁹ The eye which once saw him will see him no more,
his place will not behold him again.
¹⁰ His children will have to pay back the poor;
his hands will restore their wealth.
¹¹ His bones may be filled with [the vigor of] his youth,
but it will join him lying in the dust.

¹² “Wickedness may taste sweet in his mouth,
he may savor and roll it around on his tongue,
¹³ he may linger over it and not let it go
but keep it there in his mouth —
¹⁴ yet in his stomach his food goes bad,
it works inside him like snake venom;
¹⁵ the wealth he swallows he vomits back up;
God makes him disgorge it.
¹⁶ He sucks the poison of asps,
the viper’s fangs will kill him.
¹⁷ He will not enjoy the rivers,
the streams flowing with honey and cream.
¹⁸ He will have to give back what he toiled for;
he won’t get to swallow it down —
to the degree that he acquired wealth,
he won’t get to enjoy it.

¹⁹ “For he crushed and abandoned the poor,
seizing houses he did not build,
²⁰ because his appetite would not let him rest,
in his greed he let nothing escape;
²¹ nothing is left that he did not devour;
therefore his well-being will not last.
²² With all needs satisfied, he will be in distress;
the full force of misery will come over him.

²³ “This is what will fill his belly! —
[God] will lay on him all his burning anger
and make it rain over him, into his insides.
²⁴ If he flees from the weapon of iron,
the bow of bronze will pierce him through —
²⁵ he pulls the arrow out of his back,
the shining tip comes out from his innards;
terrors come upon him.

²⁶ “Total darkness is laid up for his treasures,
a fire fanned by no one will consume him,
and calamity awaits what is left in his tent.
²⁷ The heavens will reveal his guilt,
and the earth will rise up against him.
²⁸ The income of his household will be carried off;
his goods will flow away on the day of his wrath.
²⁹ This is God’s reward for the wicked,
the heritage God decrees for him.”

21 Then Iyov responded:

² “Listen carefully to my words;
let this be the comfort you give me.
³ Bear with me as I speak;
then, after I have spoken, you can go on mocking.

⁴ “As for me, is my complaint merely to other people?
Don’t I have grounds for being short-tempered?
⁵ Look at me, and be appalled;
cover your mouth with your hand!
⁶ Whenever I recall it, I am in shock;
my whole body shudders.

⁷ “Why do the wicked go on living,
grow old and keep increasing their power?
⁸ They see their children settled with them,
their posterity assured.
⁹ Their houses are safe, with nothing to fear;
God’s rod is not on them.
¹⁰ Their bulls are fertile without fail,
their cows get pregnant and don’t miscarry.
¹¹ They produce flocks of babies,
and their children dance around.
¹² They sing with tambourines and lyres
and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
¹³ They spend their days in prosperity
and go down to the grave in peace.

¹⁴ “Yet to God they said, ‘Leave us alone!
We don’t want to know about your ways.
¹⁵ What is Shaddai, that we should serve him?
What do we gain if we pray to him?’
¹⁶ Isn’t their prosperity already theirs?
The plans of the wicked are far from me.

¹⁷ “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
How often does their calamity come upon them?
How often does [God] deal out pain in his anger,
¹⁸ to make them like straw in the wind,
like chaff carried off by a storm?
¹⁹ God lays up for their children
[the punishment for their] iniquity.
He should lay it on [the wicked] themselves,
so that they can feel it!
²⁰ Let their own eyes see their own destruction
and themselves drink the wrath of Shaddai.
²¹ What joy can they have in their family after them,
given that their months are numbered?

²² “Can anyone teach God knowledge?
After all, he judges those who are on high.
²³ One person dies in his full strength,
completely at ease and content;
²⁴ his pails are full of milk,
and the marrow in his bones is moist.
²⁵ Another dies with embittered heart,
never having tasted happiness.
²⁶ They lie down alike in the dust,
and the worm covers them both.

²⁷ “Look, I know what you are thinking
and your plans to do me wrong.
²⁸ You ask, ‘Where is the great man’s house?
Where is the tent where the wicked once lived?’
²⁹ Haven’t you ever questioned travelers?
Don’t you accept their testimony
³⁰ that the evil man is saved on the day of disaster,
rescued on the day of wrath?
³¹ So who will confront him with his ways?
Who will repay him for what he has done?
³² For he is carried off to the grave,
people keep watch over his tomb,
³³ the clods of the valley are sweet to him;
so everyone follows his example,
just as before him were countless others.

³⁴ “Why offer me such meaningless comfort?
Of your answers, only the perfidy remains.”