17  “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?

That their calamity comes upon them?

That God¹ distributes pains in his anger?

18  That they are like straw before the wind,

and like chaff that the storm carries away?

19  You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity ^ufor their children.’

Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.

20  Let their own eyes see their destruction,

and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

21  For what do they care for their houses after them,

when the ^vnumber of their months is cut off?

22  Will any teach God knowledge,

seeing that he judges those who are on high?

23  One dies in his full vigor,

being wholly at ease and secure,

24  his pails² full of milk

and the marrow of his bones moist.

25  Another dies in bitterness of soul,

never having tasted of prosperity.

26  They lie down ^walike ^xin the dust,

and the worms cover them.

27  “Behold, I know your thoughts

and your schemes to wrong me.

28  For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?

Where is 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 the evil man is spared in the day of calamity,

that he is rescued in the day of wrath?

31  Who declares his way to his face,

and who repays him for what he has done?

32  When he is carried to the grave,

watch is kept over his tomb.

33  The clods of the valley are sweet to him;

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.”