Job 21

Job Replies: The Wicked Do Prosper

21Then Job answered and said:

^2k“Keep listening to my words,

and let this be your comfort.

³Bear with me, and I will speak,

and after I have spoken, ^lmock on.

⁴As for me, is my ^mcomplaint against man?

Why should I not be impatient?

⁵Look at me and be appalled,

and ⁿlay your hand over your mouth.

⁶When I remember, I am dismayed,

and shuddering seizes my flesh.

^7oWhy do the wicked live,

reach old age, and grow mighty in power?

⁸Their ^poffspring are established in their presence,

and their descendants before their eyes.

⁹Their houses are ^qsafe from fear,

and ^rno rod of God is upon them.

¹⁰Their bull breeds without fail;

their cow calves and ^sdoes not miscarry.

¹¹They send out their ^tlittle boys like a flock,

and their children dance.

¹²They sing to ^uthe tambourine and ^vthe lyre

and rejoice to the sound of ^vthe pipe.

¹³They ^wspend their days in prosperity,

and in ^xpeace they go down to ^ySheol.

¹⁴They say to God, ^z‘Depart from us!

We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.

^15aWhat is the Almighty, that we should serve him?

And what ^bprofit do we get if we pray to him?’

¹⁶Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?

^cThe counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁷“How often is it that ^dthe lamp of the wicked is put out?

That their calamity comes upon them?

That God¹ distributes pains in his anger?

¹⁸That they are like ^estraw before the wind,

and like ^fchaff that the storm carries away?

¹⁹You say, ‘God ^gstores up their iniquity for their ^hchildren.’

Let him pay it out to them, that they may ⁱknow it.

²⁰Let their own eyes see their destruction,

and let them ^jdrink of the wrath of the Almighty.

²¹For what do they care for their houses after them,

when ^kthe number of their months is cut off?

^22lWill any teach God knowledge,

seeing that he ^mjudges those who are on high?

²³One dies in his full vigor,

being wholly at ease and secure,

²⁴his pails² full of milk

and ⁿthe marrow of his bones moist.

²⁵Another dies in ^obitterness of soul,

never having tasted of prosperity.

²⁶They ^plie down alike in the dust,

and ^qthe worms cover them.

²⁷“Behold, I know your thoughts

and your schemes to wrong me.

²⁸For you say, ^r‘Where is the house of the prince?

Where is ^sthe tent in which the wicked lived?’

²⁹Have you not asked those who travel the roads,

and do you not accept their testimony

³⁰that ^tthe evil man is spared in the day of calamity,

that he is rescued in the day of wrath?

³¹Who declares his way ^uto his face,

and who ^vrepays him for what he has done?

³²When he is ^wcarried to the grave,

watch is kept over his tomb.

^33xThe clods of the valley are sweet to him;

^yall mankind follows after him,

and those who go before him are innumerable.

³⁴How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?

There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”