Or much worse. Suffering represents an extended Hand, an opportunity for repentance, a call to redemption—it is punishment, and yet it comes from Mercy. The opposite is taking place with the wicked man who knows no lack or pain; he is, not shielded from, deprived of them; his fortune is but delayed misfortune, a generous reward for all the good he has done in this life, given in full so there will be nothing left to account for in the next life other than the evil he has done.