Job 21
1 Then Job answered,
Then Job answered, and said:
2 “Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.
Hear, I beseech you, my words, and do penance.
3 Allow me, and I also will speak. After I have spoken, mock on.
Suffer me, and I will speak, and after, if you please, laugh at my words.
4 As for me, is my complaint to man? Why should not I be impatient?
Is my debate against man, that I should not have just reason to be troubled?
5 Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.
Hearken to me and be astonished, and lay your finger on your mouth.
6 When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.
As for me, when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.
7 “Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?
Why then do the wicked live, are they advanced, and strengthened with riches?
8 Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes.
Their seed continueth before them, a multitude of kinsmen, and of children’s children in their sight.
9 Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.
Their houses are secure and peaceable, and the rod of God is not upon them.
10 Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and do not miscarry.
Their cattle have conceived, and failed not: their cow has calved, and is not deprived of her fruit.
11 They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.
Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children dance and play.
12 They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
They take the timbrel, and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.
They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell. (Sheol h7585)
14 They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we do not want to know about your ways.
Who have said to God: Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’
Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what doth it profit us if we pray to him?
16 Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
Yet because their good things are not in their hand, may the counsel of the wicked be 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?
How often shall the lamp of the wicked be put out, and a deluge come upon them, and he shall distribute the sorrows of his wrath?
18 How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?
They shall be as chaff before the face of the wind, and as ashes which the whirlwind scattereth.
19 You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’ Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.
God shall lay up the sorrow of the father for his children: and when he shall repay, then shall he know.
20 Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
His eyes shall see his own destruction, and he shall 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?
For what is it to him what befalleth his house after him: and if the number of his months be diminished by one half?
22 “Shall any teach God knowledge, since he judges those who are high?
Shall any one teach God knowledge, who judgeth those that are high?
23 One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
One man dieth strong, and hale, rich and happy.
24 His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.
His bowels are full of fat, and his bones are moistened with marrow.
25 Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.
But another dieth in bitterness of soul without any riches:
26 They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them.
And yet they shall sleep together in the dust, and worms shall cover them.
27 “Behold, I know your thoughts, the plans with which you would wrong me.
Surely I know your thoughts, and your unjust judgments against me.
28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
For you say: Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?
29 Have not you asked wayfaring men? Do not you know their evidences,
Ask any one of them that go by the way, and you shall perceive that he knoweth these same things.
30 that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, that they are led out to the day of wrath?
Because the wicked man is reserved to the day of destruction, and he shall be brought to the day of wrath.
31 Who will declare his way to his face? Who will repay him what he has done?
Who shall reprove his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?
32 Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men will keep watch over the tomb.
He shall be brought to the graves, and shall watch in the heap of the dead.
33 The clods of the valley will be sweet to him. All men will draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.
He hath been acceptable to the gravel of Cocytus, and he shall draw every man after him, and there are innumerable before him.
34 So how can you comfort me with nonsense, because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”
How then do ye comfort me in vain, whereas your answer is shewn to be repugnant to truth?
