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^2 (a)"Keep listening to my words,
    and let this be your comfort.
³ Bear with me, and I will speak,
    and after I have spoken, ^(b)mock on.
⁴ As for me, is my ^(c)complaint against man?
    Why should I not be impatient?
⁵ Look at me and be appalled,
    and ^(d)lay your hand over your mouth.
⁶ When I remember, I am dismayed,
    and shuddering seizes my flesh.
^7 (e)Why do the wicked live,
    reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
⁸ Their ^(f)offspring are established in their presence,
    and their descendants before their eyes.
⁹ Their houses are ^(g)safe from fear,
    and ^(h)no rod of God is upon them.
¹⁰ Their bull breeds without fail;
    their cow calves and ⁽ⁱ⁾does not miscarry.
¹¹ They send out their ^(j)little boys like a flock,
    and their children dance.
¹² They sing to ^(k)the tambourine and ^(l)the lyre
    and rejoice to the sound of ^(m)the pipe.
¹³ They ⁽ⁿ⁾spend their days in prosperity,
    and in ^(o)peace they go down to ^(p)Sheol.
¹⁴ They say to God, ^(q)‘Depart from us!
    We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.
^15 (r)What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
    And what ^(s)profit do we get if we pray to him?'
¹⁶ Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?
    ^(t)The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁷ "How often is it that ^(u)the lamp of the wicked is put out?
    That their calamity comes upon them?
    That God^[a] distributes pains in his anger?
¹⁸ That they are like ^(v)straw before the wind,
    and like ^(w)chaff that the storm carries away?
¹⁹ You say, ‘God ^(x)stores up their iniquity for their ^(y)children.'
    Let him pay it out to them, that they may ^(z)know it.
²⁰ Let their own eyes see their destruction,
    and let them ^(aa)drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
²¹ For what do they care for their houses after them,
    when ^(ab)the number of their months is cut off?
^22 (ac)Will any teach God knowledge,
    seeing that he ^(ad)judges those who are on high?
²³ One dies in his full vigor,
    being wholly at ease and secure,
²⁴ his pails^[b] full of milk
    and ^(ae)the marrow of his bones moist.
²⁵ Another dies in ^(af)bitterness of soul,
    never having tasted of prosperity.
²⁶ They ^(ag)lie down alike in the dust,
    and ^(ah)the worms cover them.

²⁷ "Behold, I know your thoughts
    and your schemes to wrong me.
²⁸ For you say, ^(ai)‘Where is the house of the prince?
    Where is ^(aj)the tent in which the wicked lived?'
²⁹ Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
    and do you not accept their testimony
³⁰ that ^(ak)the evil man is spared in the day of calamity,
    that he is rescued in the day of wrath?
³¹ Who declares his way ^(al)to his face,
    and who ^(am)repays him for what he has done?
³² When he is ^(an)carried to the grave,
    watch is kept over his tomb.
^33 (ao)The clods of the valley are sweet to him;
    ^(ap)all mankind follows after him,
    and those who go before him are innumerable.
³⁴ How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
    There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood."