Job 21

Job’s Seventh Speech: A Response to Zophar

21Then^a Job answered and said,

²“Listen carefully to my words,

and let this be your^b consolation.

³Bear with me, and I myself^c will speak;

then^d after my speaking you can mock.

⁴As for me, is my complaint for human beings?

And if so, why cannot I be impatient?

⁵Turn to me and be appalled,

and place your hand on your mouth.

⁶And when I think of it, I am horrified,^e

and shuddering seizes my flesh.

⁷“Why do the wicked live,

grow old, even grow mighty in power?

⁸With them their offspring are established before them,^f

and their descendants before their eyes.

⁹Their houses are safe without fear,

and the rod of God is not upon them.

¹⁰His bull breeds and does not fail;

his cow calves and does not miscarry.

¹¹They send out their little ones like the flock,

and their children dance around.

¹²They sing^g to the tambourine and lyre,

and they rejoice to the sound of the long flute.

¹³They spend their days in prosperity,

and in peace they go down to Sheol.

¹⁴And they say to God, ‘Turn away from us,

for^h we do not desire to know your ways.

¹⁵Who is Shaddai that we should serve him,

orⁱ what would we benefit when we plead with him?’

¹⁶Look, their prosperity is not in their hands;

the schemes of the wicked are repugnant^j to me.

¹⁷“How often is the lamp of the wicked put out,

and their disaster comes upon them?

He^k distributes pains in his anger.

¹⁸How often are they like straw before^l the wind,

and like chaff that the storm carries away?

¹⁹‘God stores up his iniquity for his children’?^m

Then let him repay it to him thatⁿ he may know.

²⁰Let his eyes see his decay,

and let him drink from the wrath of Shaddai,

²¹for what does he care for^o his house after him,

when the number of his months is^p cut off?

²²Can anyone teach knowledge to God,

since^q he himself^r judges high ones?

²³This one dies in full prosperity,^s

completely^t at ease and secure.

²⁴His vats are full with milk

and the marrow of his bones is moist.

²⁵Yet^u another dies with a bitter inner self^v

and has not tasted prosperity.

²⁶They lie down together in the dust,

and maggots cover them.

²⁷“Look, I know your^w thoughts

and the schemes you devise against me.

²⁸For you say, ‘Where is the nobleman’s house,

and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’^x

²⁹Do you not ask those traveling the roads,

and do you not take notice of their accounts?

³⁰Indeed, the wicked is spared from the day of disaster;

he is delivered from the day of wrath.

³¹Who denounces his way to his face?

And who repays him for what he has done?

³²When^y he is brought to the grave,

then^z someone stands guard over the tomb.

³³The clods of the valley are sweet to him;

everyone will follow after him,

and before^a him they are innumerable.^b

³⁴So^c how will you comfort me with emptiness,

when^d fraud is left in your answers?”