Job 21

Job

Then Job replied:

“Listen carefully to my words;^a

let this be the consolation you give me.^b

Bear with me while I speak,

and after I have spoken, mock on.^c

“Is my complaint^d directed to a human being?

Why should I not be impatient?^e

Look at me and be appalled;

clap your hand over your mouth.^f

When I think about this, I am terrified;^g

trembling seizes my body.^h

Why do the wicked live on,

growing old and increasing in power?ⁱ

They see their children established around them,

their offspring before their eyes.^j

Their homes are safe and free from fear;^k

the rod of God is not on them.^l

Their bulls never fail to breed;

their cows calve and do not miscarry.^m

They send forth their children as a flock;ⁿ

their little ones dance about.

They sing to the music of timbrel and lyre;^o

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

They spend their years in prosperity^q

and go down to the grave^r in peace.^s

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

We have no desire to know your ways.^u

Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?

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

But their prosperity is not in their own hands,

so I stand aloof from the counsel of the wicked.^w

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

How often does calamity^y come upon them,

the fate God allots in his anger?^z

How often are they like straw before the wind,

like chaff^a swept away^bc by a gale?^d

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

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

Let their own eyes see their destruction;^g

let them drink^h of the wrath of the Almighty.ⁱ

For what do they care about the families they leave behind^j

when their allotted months^k come to an end?^l

“Can anyone teach knowledge to God,^m

since he judges even the highest?ⁿ

One person dies in full vigor,^o

completely secure and at ease,^p

well nourished^q in body,

bones^r rich with marrow.^s

Another dies in bitterness of soul,^t

never having enjoyed anything good.

Side by side they lie in the dust,^u

and worms^v cover them both.^w

“I know full well what you are thinking,

the schemes by which you would wrong me.

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

the tents where the wicked lived?’^y

Have you never questioned those who travel?

Have you paid no regard to their accounts—

that the wicked are spared from the day of calamity,^z

that they are delivered from the day of wrath?^a

Who denounces their conduct to their face?

Who repays them for what they have done?^b

They are carried to the grave,

and watch is kept over their tombs.^c

The soil in the valley is sweet to them;^d

everyone follows after them,

and a countless throng goes before them.^e

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

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