Job Replies: The Wicked Do Prosper
1Then Job answered and said:
2k“Keep listening to my words,
and let this be your comfort.
3Bear with me, and I will speak,
and after I have spoken, lmock on.
4As for me, is my mcomplaint against man?
Why should I not be impatient?
5Look at me and be appalled,
and nlay your hand over your mouth.
6When I remember, I am dismayed,
and shuddering seizes my flesh.
7oWhy do the wicked live,
reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
8Their poffspring are established in their presence,
and their descendants before their eyes.
9Their houses are qsafe from fear,
and rno rod of God is upon them.
10Their bull breeds without fail;
their cow calves and sdoes not miscarry.
11They send out their tlittle boys like a flock,
and their children dance.
12They sing to uthe tambourine and vthe lyre
and rejoice to the sound of vthe pipe.
13They wspend their days in prosperity,
and in xpeace they go down to ySheol.
14They say to God, z‘Depart from us!
We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.
15aWhat is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
And what bprofit do we get if we pray to him?’
16Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?
cThe counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17“How often is it that dthe lamp of the wicked is put out?
That their calamity comes upon them?
That God1 distributes pains in his anger?
18That they are like estraw before the wind,
and like fchaff that the storm carries away?
19You say, ‘God gstores up their iniquity for their hchildren.’
Let him pay it out to them, that they may iknow it.
20Let their own eyes see their destruction,
and let them jdrink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21For what do they care for their houses after them,
when kthe number of their months is cut off?
22lWill any teach God knowledge,
seeing that he mjudges those who are on high?
23One dies in his full vigor,
being wholly at ease and secure,
24his pails2 full of milk
and nthe marrow of his bones moist.
25Another dies in obitterness of soul,
never having tasted of prosperity.
26They plie down alike in the dust,
and qthe worms cover them.
27“Behold, I know your thoughts
and your schemes to wrong me.
28For you say, r‘Where is the house of the prince?
Where is sthe tent in which the wicked lived?’
29Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
and do you not accept their testimony
30that tthe evil man is spared in the day of calamity,
that he is rescued in the day of wrath?
31Who declares his way uto his face,
and who vrepays him for what he has done?
32When he is wcarried to the grave,
watch is kept over his tomb.
33xThe clods of the valley are sweet to him;
yall mankind follows after him,
and those who go before him are innumerable.
34How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”
The Prophesied Kingdom — Part One
Ezra 1:1 – Malachi 4:6 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 36:31 • ID: 2390The Prophesied Kingdom — Part Two
Ezra 1:1 – Malachi 4:6 Sermon • Includes Transcript • 43:38 • ID: 2391Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.