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Job spoke next. He said:
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Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you allow me.
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Permit me to speak in my turn; you may jeer when I have spoken.
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Is my complaint just about a fellow-mortal? I have good grounds to be perturbed!
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Give your attention to me; you will be dumbfounded and will place your hand over your mouth.
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I myself am appalled at the very thought, and my flesh creeps.
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Why do the wicked still live on, their power increasing with their age?
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They see their posterity assured, and their offspring secure before their eyes.
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The peace of their houses has nothing to fear, the rod that God wields is not for them.
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No mishap with their bull at breeding-time, nor miscarriage with their cow at calving.
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They let their infants frisk like lambs, their children dance like deer.
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They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
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They end their lives in happiness and go down in peace to Sheol.
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Yet these are the ones who say to God, 'Go away! We do not want to learn your ways.
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What is the point of our serving Shaddai? What should we gain from praying to him?'
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Surely they have won their own prosperity, since God is kept so far from their plans?
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Do we often see the light of the wicked put out, or disaster overtake him, or the retribution of God destroy his possessions,
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or the wind blow him away like a straw, or a whirlwind carry him off like chaff?
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So God is storing up punishment for his children? But the wicked himself should be punished, and should know it!
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He himself should witness his own ruin, and himself drink the anger of Shaddai.
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Once he is gone, what joy can he gain from his family, once the number of his months has been cut off?
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But who can teach wisdom to God, to him who is judge of those on high?
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And again: one person dies in the fullness of strength, in all possible happiness and ease,
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thighs padded with fat and the marrow in the bones good and moist.
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Another dies in bitterness of heart, never having tasted happiness.
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They lie together down in the dust and the worms soon cover them both.
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Oh, I know what is in your minds, what you so spitefully think about me!
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'What has become of the great lord's house,' you say, 'where is the tent where the wicked used to live?'
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Have you never questioned people who travel, do you not understand the testimony they give:
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on the day of disaster, the wicked is spared, on the day of retribution, he is kept safe?
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And who is there then to reproach him for his deeds and to pay him back for the things he has done?
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He is carried away to the cemetery, and a watch is kept at his tomb.
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The clods of the ravine lie easy on him, and the whole population walk behind.
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So what sense is there in your empty consolation? your answers are the left-overs of infidelity!
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