New Living Translation | English Standard Version |
1Then Job spoke again: | 1Then Job answered and said: |
2“Listen closely to what I am saying. That’s one consolation you can give me. | 2“Keep listening to my words, and let this be your comfort. |
3Bear with me, and let me speak. After I have spoken, you may resume mocking me. | 3Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on. |
4“My complaint is with God, not with people. I have good reason to be so impatient. | 4As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient? |
5Look at me and be stunned. Put your hand over your mouth in shock. | 5Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth. |
6When I think about what I am saying, I shudder. My body trembles. | 6When I remember, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh. |
7“Why do the wicked prosper, growing old and powerful? | 7Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? |
8They live to see their children grow up and settle down, and they enjoy their grandchildren. | 8Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes. |
9Their homes are safe from every fear, and God does not punish them. | 9Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them. |
10Their bulls never fail to breed. Their cows bear calves and never miscarry. | 10Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and does not miscarry. |
11They let their children frisk about like lambs. Their little ones skip and dance. | 11They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance. |
12They sing with tambourine and harp. They celebrate to the sound of the flute. | 12They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe. |
13They spend their days in prosperity, then go down to the grave in peace. | 13They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol. |
14And yet they say to God, ‘Go away. We want no part of you and your ways. | 14They say to God, ‘Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways. |
15Who is the Almighty, and why should we obey him? What good will it do us to pray?’ | 15What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’ |
16(They think their prosperity is of their own doing, but I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.) | 16Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? The counsel of the wicked is far from me. |
17“Yet the light of the wicked never seems to be extinguished. Do they ever have trouble? Does God distribute sorrows to them in anger? | 17“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger? |
18Are they driven before the wind like straw? Are they carried away by the storm like chaff? Not at all! | 18That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away? |
19“‘Well,’ you say, ‘at least God will punish their children!’ But I say he should punish the ones who sin, so that they understand his judgment. | 19You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’ Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it. |
20Let them see their destruction with their own eyes. Let them drink deeply of the anger of the Almighty. | 20Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty. |
21For they will not care what happens to their family after they are dead. | 21For what do they care for their houses after them, when the number of their months is cut off? |
22“But who can teach a lesson to God, since he judges even the most powerful? | 22Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those who are on high? |
23One person dies in prosperity, completely comfortable and secure, | 23One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure, |
24the picture of good health, vigorous and fit. | 24his pails full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist. |
25Another person dies in bitter poverty, never having tasted the good life. | 25Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity. |
26But both are buried in the same dust, both eaten by the same maggots. | 26They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them. |
27“Look, I know what you’re thinking. I know the schemes you plot against me. | 27“Behold, I know your thoughts and your schemes to wrong me. |
28You will tell me of rich and wicked people whose houses have vanished because of their sins. | 28For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’ |
29But ask those who have been around, and they will tell you the truth. | 29Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony |
30Evil people are spared in times of calamity and are allowed to escape disaster. | 30that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath? |
31No one criticizes them openly or pays them back for what they have done. | 31Who declares his way to his face, and who repays him for what he has done? |
32When they are carried to the grave, an honor guard keeps watch at their tomb. | 32When he is carried to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb. |
33A great funeral procession goes to the cemetery. Many pay their respects as the body is laid to rest, and the earth gives sweet repose. | 33The clods of the valley are sweet to him; all mankind follows after him, and those who go before him are innumerable. |
34“How can your empty clichés comfort me? All your explanations are lies!” | 34How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.” |
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. |
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