Job 21
1 Then Job answered,
Then responded Job, and said: —
2 “Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.
Hear ye patiently my words, and let this be your consolation:
3 Allow me, and I also will speak. After I have spoken, mock on.
Suffer me, that, I, may speak, and, after I have spoken, thou canst mock!
4 As for me, is my complaint to man? Why should not I be impatient?
Did, I, unto man, make my complaint? Wherefore, then, should my spirit not be impatient?
5 Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.
Turn round to me, and be astonished, and lay hand on mouth!
6 When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.
When I call to mind, then am I dismayed, and there seizeth my flesh a shuddering: —
7 “Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?
Wherefore do, lawless men, live, advance in years, even wax mighty in power?
8 Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes.
Their seed, is established in their sight, along with them, yea their offspring, before their eyes;
9 Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.
Their houses, are at peace, without dread, neither is, the rod of GOD, upon them;
10 Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and do not miscarry.
His bull, covereth, and causeth not aversion, His cow safely calveth, and casteth not her young;
11 They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.
They send forth—like a flock—their young ones, and, their children, skip about for joy;
12 They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
They rejoice aloud as [with] timbrel and lyre, and make merry to the sound of the pipe;
They complete, in prosperity, their days, and, in a moment to hades, they sink down. (Sheol h7585)
14 They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we do not want to know about your ways.
Yet they said unto GOD, Depart from us, and, In the knowledge of thy ways, find we no pleasure.
15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? Or what shall we profit, that we should urge him?
16 Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
Lo! not in their own hand, is their welfare, The counsel of lawless men, 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?
How oft, the lamp of the lawless, goeth out, and their calamity, cometh upon them, Sorrows, apportioneth he in his anger;
18 How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?
They become as straw before the wind, and as chaff, which the storm stealeth away.
19 You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’ Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.
Shall, GOD, reserve, for his children, his sorrow? Let him recompense him so that he may know it;
20 Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
His own eyes, shall see his misfortune, and, the wrath of the Almighty, shall he drink.
21 For what does he care for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
For what shall be his pleasure in his house after him, when, the number of his months, is cut in twain?
22 “Shall any teach God knowledge, since he judges those who are high?
Is it, to GOD, one can teach knowledge, seeing that, he, shall judge, them who are on high?
23 One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
This, man dieth, in the very perfection of his prosperity, wholly tranquil and secure;
24 His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.
His veins, are filled with nourishment, and, the marrow of his bones, is fresh;
25 Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.
Whereas, this other man, dieth, in bitterness of soul, and hath never tasted good fortune:
26 They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them.
Together, in the dust, they lie down, and, the worm, spreadeth a covering over them.
27 “Behold, I know your thoughts, the plans with which you would wrong me.
Lo! I know your plans, and the devices, wherewith ye would do me violence!
28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
For ye say, Where is the house of the noble-minded? And where the dwelling-tent of the lawless?
29 Have not you asked wayfaring men? Do not you know their evidences,
Have ye not asked the passers-by in the way? And, their signs, can ye not recognise?
30 that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, that they are led out to the day of wrath?
That, to the day of calamity, is the wicked reserved, to the day of indignant visitation, are they led.
31 Who will declare his way to his face? Who will repay him what he has done?
Who can declare—to his face—his way? And, what, he, hath done, who shall recompense to him?
32 Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men will keep watch over the tomb.
Yet, he, to the graves, is borne, and, over the tomb, one keepeth watch;
33 The clods of the valley will be sweet to him. All men will draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.
Pleasant to him are the mounds of the torrent-bed, —and, after him, doth every man march, as, before him, there were without number.
34 So how can you comfort me with nonsense, because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”
How then should ye comfort me with vanity, since, as for your replies, there lurketh, [in them] treachery?
