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 diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.
3 Be patient with me, and allow me to speak. Then, after I am finished speaking, you can continue to make fun of me.
Allow me, and I also will speak. After I have spoken, mock on.
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!
As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn’t I 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 astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.
6 When I think about [what has happened to me], I am frightened and my entire body shakes.
When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.
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, become old, yes, and grow mighty 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 child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes.
9 Wicked people live in their own houses without being afraid, and God does not punish [MTY] them.
Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God 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 calve, and don’t miscarry.
11 Wicked people send their young children outside [to play], and the children play [happily] like [SIM] lambs [in a pasture].
They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.
12 Some children dance and sing, while others shake tambourines and play lyres, and they are happy when they hear people playing flutes.
They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
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. In an instant they go down to Sheol. (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!
They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about 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]’
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, 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.
Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
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 it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes on them, that God distributes sorrows in his anger?
18 [He does not blow] them away like wind blows away straw; they are never carried off by a whirlwind.
How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?
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].
You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’ Let him recompense it to himself, that he may 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 own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of 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 for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
22 “Since God judges [everyone, ] even those that are in heaven, (who can teach God anything?/certainly no one can teach God anything.) [RHQ]
“Shall any teach God knowledge, since he judges those who are high?
23 Some people die while they are very healthy, while they are peaceful, when they are not afraid of anything.
One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
24 Their bodies are fat; their bones are strong.
His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.
25 Other people die being very miserable; they have never experienced good things happening to them.
Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.
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].
They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them.
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, the plans with 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 is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
29 But have you never inquired of people who travel much? Do you not believe their reports about what they have seen,
Haven’t you asked wayfaring men? Don’t you know their evidences,
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]?
that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, that they are led out to 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 will declare his way to his face? Who will repay him what he has done?
32 The corpses of wicked people are carried to their graves, and people are put there to guard those graves.
Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men will keep watch over the 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 will be sweet to him. All men will draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.
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 nonsense, because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”
