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