Job 21
1 Then Job answered:
Then Job answered, and said:
2 “Listen carefully to my words; let this be your consolation to me.
Hear, I beseech you, my words, and do penance.
3 Bear with me while I speak; then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking.
Suffer me, and I will speak, and after, if you please, laugh at my words.
4 Is my complaint against a man? Then why should I not be impatient?
Is my debate against man, that I should not have just reason to be troubled?
5 Look at me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth.
Hearken to me and be astonished, and lay your finger on your mouth.
6 When I remember, terror takes hold, and my body trembles in horror.
As for me, when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.
7 Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?
Why then do the wicked live, are they advanced, and strengthened with riches?
8 Their descendants are established around them, and their offspring before their eyes.
Their seed continueth before them, a multitude of kinsmen, and of children’s children in their sight.
9 Their homes are safe from fear; no rod of punishment from God is 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 bear calves 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 forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,
Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children dance and play.
12 singing to the tambourine and lyre and making merry at the sound of the flute.
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 Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways.
Who have said to God: Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain 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 Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.
Yet because their good things are not in their hand, may the counsel of the wicked be far from me.
17 How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come upon them? Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction?
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 Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?
They shall be as chaff before the face of the wind, and as ashes which the whirlwind scattereth.
19 It is said that God lays up one’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the man himself, so he will 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 eyes see his own destruction; let him drink for himself 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 about his household after him, when the number of his months has run out?
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 Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since He judges those on high?
Shall any one teach God knowledge, who judgeth those that are high?
23 One man dies full of vigor, completely secure and at ease.
One man dieth strong, and hale, rich and happy.
24 His body is well nourished, and his bones are rich with marrow.
His bowels are full of fat, and his bones are moistened with marrow.
25 Yet another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, having never tasted prosperity.
But another dieth in bitterness of soul without any riches:
26 But together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both.
And yet they shall sleep together in the dust, and worms shall cover them.
27 Behold, I know your thoughts full well, the schemes by which you would wrong me.
Surely I know your thoughts, and your unjust judgments against me.
28 For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’
For you say: Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?
29 Have you never asked those who travel the roads? Do you not accept their reports?
Ask any one of them that go by the way, and you shall perceive that he knoweth these same things.
30 Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from 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 denounces his behavior to his face? Who repays him for what he has done?
Who shall reprove his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?
32 He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.
He shall be brought to the graves, and shall watch in the heap of the dead.
33 The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number.
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 empty words? For your answers remain full of falsehood.”
How then do ye comfort me in vain, whereas your answer is shewn to be repugnant to truth?
