15. Who is the Almighty, and why should we obey him?What good will it do us to pray?’
16. (They think their prosperity is of their own doing,but I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.)
17. “Yet the light of the wicked never seems to be extinguished.Do they ever have trouble?Does God distribute sorrows to them in anger?
18. Are they driven before the wind like straw?Are they carried away by the storm like chaff?Not at all!
19. “‘Well,’ you say, ‘at least God will punish their children!’But I say he should punish the ones who sin,so that they understand his judgment.
20. Let them see their destruction with their own eyes.Let them drink deeply of the anger of the Almighty.
21. For they will not care what happens to their familyafter they are dead.
22. “But who can teach a lesson to God,since he judges even the most powerful?
23. One person dies in prosperity,completely comfortable and secure,
24. the picture of good health,vigorous and fit.
25. Another person dies in bitter poverty,never having tasted the good life.
26. But both are buried in the same dust,both eaten by the same maggots.
27. “Look, I know what you’re thinking.I know the schemes you plot against me.
28. You will tell me of rich and wicked peoplewhose houses have vanished because of their sins.
29. But ask those who have been around,and they will tell you the truth.
30. Evil people are spared in times of calamityand are allowed to escape disaster.