Job: God Will Punish the Wicked

1Iob answered, and sayde:

2O heare my wordes, and amende yor selues.

3Suffre me a litle, that I maye speake also, and the laugh my wordes to scorne, yf ye will.

4Is it with a man, that I make this disputacio? Which yf it were so, shulde not my sprete be the in sore trouble?

5Marck me well, be abasshed, and laye youre hade vpon youre mouth.

6For whe I pondre & considre this, I am afrayed, and my flesh is smytten with feare.

7Wherfore do wicked me lyue in health and prosperite, come to their olde age, & increase in riches?

8Their childers children lyue in their sight, & their generacion before their eyes.

9Their houses are safe from all feare, for the rodd of God doth not smyte the.

10Their bullocke gendreth, and that not out of tyme: their cow calueth, and is not vnfrutefull.

11They sende forth their children by flockes, and their sonnes lede the daunce.

12They beare with them tabrettes and harpes, and haue instrumentes of musick at their pleasure.

13They spende their dayes in welthynesse: but sodenly they go downe to hell.

14They saye vnto God: go from vs, we desyre not the knowlege of thy wayes.

15What maner of felowe is the Allmightie, that we shulde serue him? What profit shulde we haue, to submitte oure selues vnto him?

16Lo, there is vtterly no goodnesse in them, therfore will not I haue to do with the councell of the vngodly.

17How oft shal the candle of ye wicked be put out? how oft commeth their destruccion vpon them? O what sorowe shall God geue them for their parte in his wrath?

18Yee they shal be euen as chaffe before the wynde, and as dust that the storme carieth awaye.

19And though God saue their childre from soch sorowe, yet wil he so rewarde theselues, that they shal knowe it.

20Their owne destruccion and misery shal they se with their eyes, and drynke of the fearfull wrath of the Allmighty.

21For whath careth he, what become of his housholde after his death? whose monethes passe awaye swifter then an arowe.

22In as moch the as God hath ye hyest power of all, who can teach him eny knowlege?

23One dyeth now when he is mightie & at his best, rich and in prosperite:

24euen when his bowels are at the fattest, and his bones full of mary.

25Another dyeth in sorowe and heuynesse, and neuer had good daies.

26Now slepe they both a like in the earth, & the wormes couer them.

27But I knowe what ye thinke, yee and what ye ymagin agaynst me vnrightuously.

28For ye saye: where is the prynces palace? where is the dwellynge of the vngodly:

29Axe eny man that goeth by the waye, and (yf ye will not regarde their tokens & dedes) he shal tell you,

30that the wicked is kepte vnto the daye of destruccion, and that the vngodly shalbe brought forth in the daye of wrath.

31Who darre reproue him for his wayes to his face? who rewardeth him for the vngraciousnesse that he doth?

32Yet shal he be brought to his graue, and watch amonge the heape of the deed.

33The shal he be fayne to be buried amoge the stones by the broke syde. All men must folowe him, & there are innumerable gone before him.

34O how vayne is the comforte yt ye geue me? Are not youre answeres cleane contrary to right and treuth?