Job's friends must listen to what he says
1Job spoke again. He said:
2‘You must listen carefully to what I am saying.
It will comfort me.
3Please be patient with me while I speak.
After I have finished,
you can speak again and mock me.
4I am not complaining about people.
I am complaining about God.
And there is a good reason
for me not to be patient.
5Look at me. You will be shocked,
you will be upset and you will keep quiet.
6When I think of
what has happened to me,
I become afraid
and my body starts to tremble.’
Why do people who do wrong stay healthy?
7‘Why do people who keep on doing wrong
stay alive and grow old?
Why do they become important?
8Why does God let them
see their children grow up?
9Their homes are safe and they are not afraid.
God does not punish them.
10The people who do wrong
have a lot of cattle and
they have more and more calves.
11Their children run around
and dance like sheep and goats.
12The people who do wrong
sing and celebrate,
and they play tambourines, lyres and flutes.
13They are happy and
they have peace when they die.
14They say to God: “Leave us.
Go away. We don't want to know
what You want us to do.”
15They ask: “Who is the Almighty God?
Why must we serve Him?
It won't help us if we pray to Him.”
16These people think that they are rich
because they have worked hard and succeeded.
I think they are wrong.
17But God does not blow out
the lamp of people who do wrong,
and they do not die young.
He does not make them suffer.
He does not become angry with them
and punish them.
18He does not blow them away
like chaff in the wind or in a storm.
19You say that God punishes
the children of people who are doing wrong.
But I say He must punish the parents
so that they can feel it themselves.
20The sinner himself must suffer,
and he must know that the Almighty God
is angry with him.
21The sinner does not worry
about his family after he has died.
22No one can teach God anything.
He knows everything.
God rules over everyone in heaven.
23Some people stay strong
and healthy until they die.
They live happily and safely.
24They eat a lot of food and become fat.
25Other people are never happy.
They suffer until they die.
26But they all die and are buried
and the worms eat them.
27I know what you think,
and I know you don't want
anything good to happen to me.
28You want to ask me:
“Where are the houses
of the important people now?
What was left over of the homes
where rich people lived who have done wrong?
Nothing. They are gone.”
29You have not asked the people
who go to far away places,
and if you have asked them,
you did not listen to what they said.
30They would have told you
that sinful people are safe
when trouble comes
and other people suffer,
and bad people stay alive
when God punishes other people.
31No one tells bad people
when they have done wrong,
and no one punishes them
for the bad things they do.
32And when they die and are buried,
people guard their tombs.
33They have beautiful tombs in the valley
and many people come when they are buried.
Some walk in front
and others walk behind their body.
There are so many that no one can count them.
34No, you try to comfort me
with words that can not help,
like wind, but you are false
when you say these things to me.’
