Job 21
1 Then Job answered,
Then Job replied,
2 “Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.
“Listen to what I say, all [three] of you; that is the only thing that you can do that will comfort me.
3 Allow me, and I also will speak. After I have spoken, mock on.
Be patient with me, and allow me to speak. Then, after I am finished speaking, you can continue to make fun of me.
4 As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn’t I be impatient?
“It is certainly not [RHQ] people against whom I am complaining, [but God] And it is certainly [RHQ] right for me to be impatient!
5 Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.
Look at me! Does what you see not cause you to be appalled and to put your hands over your mouths [and say no more]?
6 When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.
When I think about [what has happened to me], I am frightened and my entire body shakes.
7 “Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?
“[But let me ask this: ] ‘Why do wicked people continue to live, and become prosperous, and not die until they are very old?’
8 Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes.
They have their children around them, and they watch them while they [grow up and] start to live in their own houses, and they enjoy their grandchildren.
9 Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.
Wicked people live in their own houses without being afraid, and God does not punish [MTY] them.
10 Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.
Their bulls always mate with the cows successfully, and the cows give birth to calves and never miscarry.
11 They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.
Wicked people send their young children outside [to play], and the children play [happily] like [SIM] lambs [in a pasture].
12 They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
Some children dance and sing, while others shake tambourines and play lyres, and they are happy when they hear people playing flutes.
Wicked people enjoy having good things all the time that they are alive, and they die quietly/peacefully and go down to the place of the dead. (Sheol h7585)
14 They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.
While they are alive, they say to God, ‘Do not bother us; we do not want to know how you want us to conduct our lives!
15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’
Why do you, Almighty God, think that we should serve you? (What advantage do we get if we pray to you?/It is useless for us to pray to you.) [RHQ]’
16 Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
Think about it: Wicked people think that it is because of what they have done that they have become prosperous, but I do not understand why they think like that.
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?
(“How often does it happen that wicked people die [MET] before they are old?/Very seldom do wicked people die [MET] before they are old.) [RHQ] (Do they ever experience disasters?/They seldom experience disasters.) [RHQ] (Does God ever punish them because of being very angry with them?/God never punishes them because of being very angry with them.) [RHQ]
18 How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?
[He does not blow] them away like wind blows away straw; they are never carried off by a whirlwind.
19 You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’ Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.
You say, ‘When people have committed sins, God waits and punishes their children because of those sins;’ but [I say that] God should punish those who sin, [not their children, ] in order that the sinners will know [that it is because of their own sins that they are being punished].
20 Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
I hope/wish that wicked people will experience themselves being destroyed, that they will experience being punished by an angry Almighty God.
21 For what does he care for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
After wicked people are dead, they are not at all concerned [RHQ] about what happens to their families [MTY].
22 “Shall any teach God knowledge, since he judges those who are high?
“Since God judges [everyone, ] even those that are in heaven, (who can teach God anything?/certainly no one can teach God anything.) [RHQ]
23 One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
Some people die while they are very healthy, while they are peaceful, when they are not afraid of anything.
24 His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.
Their bodies are fat; their bones are strong.
25 Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.
Other people die being very miserable; they have never experienced good things happening to them.
26 They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them.
But both rich and poor people die and are buried, and maggots eat their bodies. [Everyone dies, so it is clear that dying is not always the punishment for being wicked].
27 “Behold, I know your thoughts, the plans with which you would wrong me.
“Listen, I know what you [three] are thinking. I know the evil things that you plan to do to me.
28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
You say, ‘What happened to the tents in which wicked people were living? The houses of evil rulers have been destroyed!’
29 Haven’t you asked wayfaring men? Don’t you know their evidences,
But have you never inquired of people who travel much? Do you not believe their reports about what they have seen,
30 that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, that they are led out to the day of wrath?
that wicked people usually do not suffer at the time when there are great disasters; that wicked people are the ones who are rescued when God is angry [and punishes people] [MTY]?
31 Who will declare his way to his face? Who will repay him what he has done?
There is no one [RHQ] who accuses wicked people, and there is no one who (pays them back/gives them the punishment that they deserve) for all the evil things that they have done.
32 Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men will keep watch over the tomb.
The corpses of wicked people are carried to their graves, and people are put there to guard those graves.
33 The clods of the valley will be sweet to him. All men will draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.
A huge number [HYP] of people go to the grave site. Some go in front of the procession and some come behind. And the clods of dirt thrown on the graves of those wicked people who have died are like a nice blanket.
34 So how can you comfort me with nonsense, because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”
“So how can you console me by talking nonsense? Every reply that you make is full of lies!”
