| 21:1 |
Then Job answered, |
| 21:2 |
"Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation. |
| 21:3 |
Allow me, and I also will speak; After I have spoken, mock on. |
| 21:4 |
As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn't I be impatient? |
| 21:5 |
Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth. |
| 21:6 |
When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh. |
| 21:7 |
"Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power? |
| 21:8 |
Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes. |
| 21:9 |
Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. |
| 21:10 |
Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don't miscarry. |
| 21:11 |
They send forth their little ones like a flock. Their children dance. |
| 21:12 |
They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe. |
| 21:13 |
They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol. |
| 21:14 |
They tell God, 'Depart from us, for we don't want to know about your ways. |
| 21:15 |
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?' |
| 21:16 |
Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me. |
| 21:17 |
"How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes on them, that God distributes sorrows in his anger? |
| 21:18 |
How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away? |
| 21:19 |
You say, 'God lays up his iniquity for his children.' Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it. |
| 21:20 |
Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. |
| 21:21 |
For what does he care for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off? |
| 21:22 |
"Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing he judges those who are high? |
| 21:23 |
One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. |
| 21:24 |
His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened. |
| 21:25 |
Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good. |
| 21:26 |
They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them. |
| 21:27 |
"Behold, I know your thoughts, the devices with which you would wrong me. |
| 21:28 |
For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?' |
| 21:29 |
Haven't you asked wayfaring men? Don't you know their evidences, |
| 21:30 |
that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, That they are led forth to the day of wrath? |
| 21:31 |
Who shall declare his way to his face? Who shall repay him what he has done? |
| 21:32 |
Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men shall keep watch over the tomb. |
| 21:33 |
The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him. |
| 21:34 |
So how can you comfort me with nonsense, seeing that in your answers there remains only falsehood?" |
