< Job 21 >
1 Then Job answered, and said,
2 Hear diligently my speech, And let this be your consolations.
3 Allow me, and I also will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.
4 As for me, is my complaint to man? And why should I not be impatient?
5 Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.
6 Even when I remember, I am troubled, and horror takes hold on my flesh.
7 Why do the wicked live, become old, yea, grow mighty in power?
8 Their seed is established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes.
9 Their houses are safe from fear, nor is the rod of God upon them.
10 Their bull breeds, and does not fail. Their cow brings forth safely, and does not miscarry.
11 They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
12 They sing to the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
13 They spend their days in prosperity, and in a moment they go down to Sheol. (Sheol )
14 And they say to God, Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of thy ways.
15 What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what profit should we have, if we pray to him?
16 Lo, is their prosperity not in their hand. (The counsel of the wicked is far from me.)
17 How often is it that the lamp of the profane is put out, that their calamity comes upon them, that God distributes sorrows in his anger,
18 that they are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carries away?
19 Ye say, God lays up his iniquity for his sons. Let him recompense it to himself that he may know it.
20 Let his own eyes see his destruction, and 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, seeing he judges those who are high?
23 One man dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
24 His pails are full of milk, and the marrow of his bones is moistened.
25 And another man dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.
26 They lie down alike in the dust, and the worm covers them.
27 Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices with which ye would wrong me.
28 For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? And where is the tent in which the wicked dwelt?
29 Have ye not asked wayfaring men? And do ye not know their evidences,
30 that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity? That they are led forth to the day of wrath?
31 Who shall declare his way to his face? And who shall repay him what he has done?
32 Yet he shall be borne to the grave, and men shall keep watch over the tomb.
33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. And all men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.
34 How then ye comfort me in vain, seeing in your answers there remains falsehood?
