Job 21

Job

21Then Job replied:

²“Listen carefully to my words;^w

let this be the consolation you give me.^x

³Bear with me while I speak,

and after I have spoken, mock on.^y

⁴“Is my complaint^z directed to a human being?

Why should I not be impatient?^a

⁵Look at me and be appalled;

clap your hand over your mouth.^b

⁶When I think about this, I am terrified;^c

trembling seizes my body.^d

⁷Why do the wicked live on,

growing old and increasing in power?^e

⁸They see their children established around them,

their offspring before their eyes.^f

⁹Their homes are safe and free from fear;^g

the rod of God is not on them.^h

¹⁰Their bulls never fail to breed;

their cows calve and do not miscarry.ⁱ

¹¹They send forth their children as a flock;^j

their little ones dance about.

¹²They sing to the music of timbrel and lyre;^k

they make merry to the sound of the pipe.^l

¹³They spend their years in prosperity^m

and go down to the graveⁿ in peace.^ao

¹⁴Yet they say to God, ‘Leave us alone!^p

We have no desire to know your ways.^q

¹⁵Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?

What would we gain by praying to him?’^r

¹⁶But their prosperity is not in their own hands,

so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked.^s

¹⁷“Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?^t

How often does calamity^u come upon them,

the fate God allots in his anger?^v

¹⁸How often are they like straw before the wind,

like chaff^w swept away^x by a gale?^y

¹⁹It is said, ‘God stores up the punishment of the wicked for their children.’^z

Let him repay the wicked, so that they themselves will experience it!^a

²⁰Let their own eyes see their destruction;^b

let them drink^c the cup of the wrath of the Almighty.^d

²¹For what do they care about the families they leave behind^e

when their allotted months^f come to an end?^g

²²“Can anyone teach knowledge to God,^h

since he judges even the highest?ⁱ

²³One person dies in full vigor,^j

completely secure and at ease,^k

²⁴well nourished^l in body,^b

bones^m rich with marrow.ⁿ

²⁵Another dies in bitterness of soul,^o

never having enjoyed anything good.

²⁶Side by side they lie in the dust,^p

and worms^q cover them both.^r

²⁷“I know full well what you are thinking,

the schemes by which you would wrong me.

²⁸You say, ‘Where now is the house of the great,^s

the tents where the wicked lived?’^t

²⁹Have you never questioned those who travel?

Have you paid no regard to their accounts—

³⁰that the wicked are spared from the day of calamity,^u

that they are delivered from^c the day of wrath?^v

³¹Who denounces their conduct to their face?

Who repays them for what they have done?^w

³²They are carried to the grave,

and watch is kept over their tombs.^x

³³The soil in the valley is sweet to them;^y

everyone follows after them,

and a countless throng goes^d before them.^z

³⁴“So how can you console me^a with your nonsense?

Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!”^b