1Then Job answered, and said:
2Hear, I beseech you, my words, and do penance.
3Suffer me, and I will speak, and after, if you please, laugh at my words.
4Is my debate against man, that I should not have just reason to be troubled?
5Hearken to me and be astonished, and lay your finger on your mouth.
6As for me, when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.
7Why then do the wicked live, are they advanced, and strengthened with riches?
8Their seed continueth before them, a multitude of kinsmen, and of children's children in their sight.
9Their houses are secure and peaceable, and the rod of God is not upon them.
10Their cattle have conceived, and failed not: their cow has calved, and is not deprived of her fruit.
11Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children dance and play.
12They take the timbrel, and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.
13They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell.
14Who have said to God: Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
15Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what doth it profit us if we pray to him?
16Yet because their good things are not in their hand, may the counsel of the wicked be far from me.
17How often shall the lamp of the wicked be put out, and a deluge come upon them, and he shall distribute the sorrows of his wrath?
18They shall be as chaff before the face of the wind, and as ashes which the whirlwind scattereth.
19God shall lay up the sorrow of the father for his children: and when he shall repay, then shall he know.
20His eyes shall see his own destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21For what is it to him what befalleth his house after him: and if the number of his months be diminished by one half?
22Shall any one teach God knowledge, who judgeth those that are high?
23One man dieth strong, and hale, rich and happy.
24His bowels are full of fat, and his bones are moistened with marrow.
25But another dieth in bitterness of soul without any riches:
26And yet they shall sleep together in the dust, and worms shall cover them.
27Surely I know your thoughts, and your unjust judgments against me.
28For you say: Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?
29Ask any one of them that go by the way, and you shall perceive that he knoweth these same things.
30Because the wicked man is reserved to the day of destruction, and he shall be brought to the day of wrath.
31Who shall reprove his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?
32He shall be brought to the graves, and shall watch in the heap of the dead.
33He hath been acceptable to the gravel of Cocytus, and he shall draw every man after him, and there are innumerable before him.
34How then do ye comfort me in vain, whereas your answer is shewn to be repugnant to truth?