Job 21
1 Then Job replied,
Then Job answered:
2 “Listen to what I say, all [three] of you; that is the only thing that you can do that will comfort me.
“Listen carefully to my words; let this be your consolation to me.
3 Be patient with me, and allow me to speak. Then, after I am finished speaking, you can continue to make fun of me.
Bear with me while I speak; then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking.
4 “It is certainly not [RHQ] people against whom I am complaining, [but God] And it is certainly [RHQ] right for me to be impatient!
Is my complaint against a man? Then why should I not be impatient?
5 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]?
Look at me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth.
6 When I think about [what has happened to me], I am frightened and my entire body shakes.
When I remember, terror takes hold, and my body trembles in horror.
7 “[But let me ask this: ] ‘Why do wicked people continue to live, and become prosperous, and not die until they are very old?’
Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?
8 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.
Their descendants are established around them, and their offspring before their eyes.
9 Wicked people live in their own houses without being afraid, and God does not punish [MTY] them.
Their homes are safe from fear; no rod of punishment from God is upon them.
10 Their bulls always mate with the cows successfully, and the cows give birth to calves and never miscarry.
Their bulls breed without fail; their cows bear calves and do not miscarry.
11 Wicked people send their young children outside [to play], and the children play [happily] like [SIM] lambs [in a pasture].
They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,
12 Some children dance and sing, while others shake tambourines and play lyres, and they are happy when they hear people playing flutes.
singing to the tambourine and lyre and making merry at the sound of the flute.
13 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)
They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace. (Sheol h7585)
14 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!
Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways.
15 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]’
Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’
16 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.
Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.
17 (“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]
How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come upon them? Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction?
18 [He does not blow] them away like wind blows away straw; they are never carried off by a whirlwind.
Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?
19 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].
It is said that God lays up one’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the man himself, so he will know it.
20 I hope/wish that wicked people will experience themselves being destroyed, that they will experience being punished by an angry Almighty God.
Let his eyes see his own destruction; let him drink for himself the wrath of the Almighty.
21 After wicked people are dead, they are not at all concerned [RHQ] about what happens to their families [MTY].
For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months has run out?
22 “Since God judges [everyone, ] even those that are in heaven, (who can teach God anything?/certainly no one can teach God anything.) [RHQ]
Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since He judges those on high?
23 Some people die while they are very healthy, while they are peaceful, when they are not afraid of anything.
One man dies full of vigor, completely secure and at ease.
24 Their bodies are fat; their bones are strong.
His body is well nourished, and his bones are rich with marrow.
25 Other people die being very miserable; they have never experienced good things happening to them.
Yet another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, having never tasted prosperity.
26 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].
But together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both.
27 “Listen, I know what you [three] are thinking. I know the evil things that you plan to do to me.
Behold, I know your thoughts full well, the schemes by which you would wrong me.
28 You say, ‘What happened to the tents in which wicked people were living? The houses of evil rulers have been destroyed!’
For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’
29 But have you never inquired of people who travel much? Do you not believe their reports about what they have seen,
Have you never asked those who travel the roads? Do you not accept their reports?
30 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]?
Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.
31 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.
Who denounces his behavior to his face? Who repays him for what he has done?
32 The corpses of wicked people are carried to their graves, and people are put there to guard those graves.
He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.
33 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.
The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number.
34 “So how can you console me by talking nonsense? Every reply that you make is full of lies!”
So how can you comfort me with empty words? For your answers remain full of falsehood.”
