Job: God Will Punish the Wicked 1 UST Then Job replied to Zophar and the others. He said, BSB BSB: Then Job answered:
2 UST “Please listen carefully to what I say. That is something that you can do to comfort me. BSB BSB: “Listen carefully to my words; let this be your consolation to me.
3 UST Be patient with me, and allow me to speak. Then, after I have finished speaking, you can continue to make fun of me if you wish{, although I hope you will not}. BSB BSB: Bear with me while I speak; then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking.
4 UST I am not protesting to people about my suffering, I am protesting to God! And so it is certainly acceptable for me to be impatient! BSB BSB: Is my complaint against a man? Then why should I not be impatient?
5 UST If you consider my situation, it will shock you. That should make you put your hands over your mouths{ and say no more}! BSB BSB: Look at me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth.
6 UST When I think about what has happened to me, I am frightened and my entire body shakes. BSB BSB: When I remember, terror takes hold, and my body trembles in horror.
7 UST I do not understand why wicked people live long lives and become very powerful. BSB BSB: Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?
8 UST They live to see their children grow up and start their own households nearby. BSB BSB: Their descendants are established around them, and their offspring before their eyes.
9 UST Wicked people live safely in their homes without being afraid. God does not punish them. BSB BSB: Their homes are safe from fear; no rod of punishment from God is upon them.
10 UST Their bulls mate with their cows successfully. Their cows give birth to calves. They do not miscarry. BSB BSB: Their bulls breed without fail; their cows bear calves and do not miscarry.
11 UST Wicked people are able to send their young children outside to play{ without worrying about what will happen to them}. Their children dance playfully. BSB BSB: They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,
12 UST The children play tambourines and lyres{ as they sing}, and they also play flutes happily. BSB BSB: singing to the tambourine and lyre and making merry at the sound of the flute.
13 UST Wicked people enjoy having good things while they are alive, and then they die peacefully and go to the place where dead people go. BSB BSB: They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace.
14 UST While they are alive, they say to God,‘Leave us alone; we do not care about how you want us to live our lives!’ BSB BSB: Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways.
15 UST Those wicked people also say,‘It does not matter whether we worship Shaddai. We would not get any advantage by praying to him.’ BSB BSB: Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’
16 UST Wicked people wrongly think that they have become prosperous because of what they have done. I want to think completely differently from the way they think. BSB BSB: Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.
17 UST It often happens that wicked people die without experiencing any disasters. I do not think that God actually becomes angry with them and punishes them. BSB BSB: How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come upon them? Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction?
18 UST God does not destroy them like straw that the wind blows away. It is never as if a whirlwind carries them off. BSB BSB: Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?
19 UST You say,‘When people have committed sins, God remembers and punishes their children for those sins.’ I say that God should punish the people who sin, not their children. That way sinners will know that God is punishing them for their own sins. BSB BSB: It is said that God lays up one’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the man himself, so he will know it.
20 UST Wicked people should have the experience of God destroying them. They should know what it is like for Shaddai to punish them in his wrath. BSB BSB: Let his eyes see his own destruction; let him drink for himself the wrath of the Almighty.
21 UST After all, once wicked people die, they are no longer concerned for their families who are still alive. BSB BSB: For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months has run out?
22 UST Since God judges everyone, even those who are in heaven, no one can teach him anything. BSB BSB: Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since He judges those on high?
23 UST Some people die while they are still very healthy. They die when their lives are peaceful and they are not afraid that bad things will happen to them. BSB BSB: One man dies full of vigor, completely secure and at ease.
24 UST Their bodies are fat. Their bones are strong. BSB BSB: His body is well nourished, and his bones are rich with marrow.
25 UST Other people are very miserable when they die. They die before good things have happened to them. BSB BSB: Yet another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, having never tasted prosperity.
26 UST Both kinds of people die, and other people bury them. Their bodies all decompose.{ Everyone dies, so it is clear that dying is not always the punishment for being wicked.} BSB BSB: But together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both.
27 UST Listen, I know what you three are thinking about me. You are wrongly applying to me things that are true about wicked people. BSB BSB: Behold, I know your thoughts full well, the schemes by which you would wrong me.
28 UST I know you are wrong because you say,‘God does not allow evil rulers to keep living! God does not allow wicked people to keep living!’ BSB BSB: For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’
29 UST If you want to know what life on earth is really like, you should ask people who travel much{ and see many things}. You will have to admit that the things they see and describe show what life is really like. BSB BSB: Have you never asked those who travel the roads? Do you not accept their reports?
30 UST { Travelers will report} that wicked people do not suffer when there are great disasters.{ They will report} that wicked people escape from God’ s punishment. BSB BSB: Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.
31 UST No one dares to accuse wicked people openly of doing wrong. No one punishes them for the evil things they have done. BSB BSB: Who denounces his behavior to his face? Who repays him for what he has done?
32 UST When wicked people die, others carry their bodies to their graves in a solemn procession. Then people guard their graves to protect them. BSB BSB: He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.
33 UST It would please wicked people to see how others build mounds over their graves to honor them. It would also please them to see how many people take part in their funeral processions. Many people walk in front of their bodies and many others walk behind them. BSB BSB: The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number.
34 UST Since all of this is true about wicked people, what you have been telling me does not make sense, and it has not comforted me. You have been trying to answer me by telling me things that are not true!” BSB BSB: So how can you comfort me with empty words? For your answers remain full of falsehood.”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.