1: Job replied:
2: "Now listen to me carefully, please listen, at least do me the favor of listening.
3: Put up with me while I have my say--then you can mock me later to your heart's content.
4: "It's not you I'm complaining to--it's God. Is it any wonder I'm getting fed up with his silence?
5: Take a good look at me. Aren't you appalled by what's happened? No! Don't say anything. I can do without your comments.
6: When I look back, I go into shock, my body is racked with spasms.
7: Why do the wicked have it so good, live to a ripe old age and get rich?
8: They get to see their children succeed, get to watch and enjoy their grandchildren.
9: Their homes are peaceful and free from fear; they never experience God's disciplining rod.
10: Their bulls breed with great vigor and their cows calve without fail.
11: They send their children out to play and watch them frolic like spring lambs.
12: They make music with fiddles and flutes, have good times singing and dancing.
13: They have a long life on easy street, and die painlessly in their sleep.
14: They say to God, "Get lost! We've no interest in you or your ways.
15: Why should we have dealings with God Almighty? What's there in it for us?'
16: But they're wrong, dead wrong--they're not gods. It's beyond me how they can carry on like this!
17: "Still, how often does it happen that the wicked fail, or disaster strikes, or they get their just deserts?
18: How often are they blown away by bad luck? Not very often.
19: You might say, "God is saving up the punishment for their children.' I say, "Give it to them right now so they'll know what they've done!'
20: They deserve to experience the effects of their evil, feel the full force of God's wrath firsthand.
21: What do they care what happens to their families after they're safely tucked away in the grave?
22: "But who are we to tell God how to run his affairs? He's dealing with matters that are way over our heads.
23: Some people die in the prime of life, with everything going for them--
24: fat and sassy.
25: Others die bitter and bereft, never getting a taste of happiness.
26: They're laid out side by side in the cemetery, where the worms can't tell one from the other.
27: "I'm not deceived. I know what you're up to, the plans you're cooking up to bring me down.
28: Naively you claim that the castles of tyrants fall to pieces, that the achievements of the wicked collapse.
29: Have you ever asked world travelers how they see it? Have you not listened to their stories
30: Of evil men and women who got off scot-free, who never had to pay for their wickedness?
31: Did anyone ever confront them with their crimes? Did they ever have to face the music?
32: Not likely--they're given fancy funerals with all the trimmings,
33: Gently lowered into expensive graves, with everyone telling lies about how wonderful they were.
34: "So how do you expect me to get any comfort from your nonsense? Your so-called comfort is a tissue of lies." Eliphaz Attacks Job--The Third Round Come to Terms with God