1. Then Job responded by saying:
2. I beseech you to hear my words and to do penance.
3. Permit me, and I will speak, and afterwards, if you see fit, you can laugh at my words.
4. Is my dispute against man, so that I would have no reason to be discouraged?
5. Listen to me and be astonished, and place a finger over your mouth.
6. As for me, when I think it over, I am afraid, and trembling convulses my body.
7. Why then do the impious live, having been lifted up and strengthened with riches?
8. They see their offspring continue before them: a commotion of close relatives and of children's children in their sight.
9. Their houses have been secure and peaceable, and there is no staff of God over them.
10. Their cattle have conceived and have not miscarried; their cow has given birth and is not deprived of her newborn.
11. Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children jump around playfully.
12. They take up the timbrel and the lyre, and they rejoice at the sound of the organ.
13. Their days are prolonged in wealth, yet, in an instant, they descend into hell.
14. Who has said to God, "Depart from us, for we do not want the knowledge of your ways.