Job 21
1Then Job answered and said, 1
2“Listen carefully to my words, 1 and let this be the comfort you offer to me. 1
3Put up with me, and I also will speak; 1 after I have spoken, mock on. 1
4As for me, is my complaint to a person? 1 Why should I not be impatient? 1
5Look at me and be astonished, 1 and lay your hand upon your mouth. 1
6When I think about my sufferings, I am terrified, 1 and trembling seizes my body. 1
7Why do wicked people continue to live, 1 become old, and grow mighty in power? 1
8Their descendants are established with them in their sight, 1 and their offspring are established before their eyes. 1
9Their houses are safe from fear; 1 neither is the rod of God on them. 1
10Their bull breeds; it does not fail to do so; 1 their cow gives birth and does not lose her calf prematurely. 1
11They send out their little ones like a flock, 1 and their children dance. 1
12They sing to the tambourine and harp 1 and rejoice with the music of the flute. 1
13They spend their days in prosperity, 1 and they go down quietly to Sheol. 1
14They say to God, 'Depart from us 1 for we do not wish any knowledge of your ways. 1
15What is the Almighty, that we should worship him? 1 What advantage would we get if we prayed to him?' 1
16See, is not their prosperity in their own hands? 1 I have nothing to do with the advice of wicked people. 1
17How often is it that the lamp of wicked people is put out, 1 or that their calamity comes upon them? 1 How often does it happen that God distributes sorrows to them in his anger? 1
18How often is it that they become like stubble before the wind 1 or like chaff that the storm carries away? 1
19You say, 'God lays up one's guilt for his children to pay.' 1 Let him pay it himself, so that he might know his guilt. 1
20Let his eyes see his own destruction, 1 and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. 1
21For what does he care about his family after him 1 when the number of his months is cut off? 1
22Can anyone teach God knowledge 1 since he judges even those who are high? 1
23One man dies in his full strength, 1 being completely quiet and at ease. 1
24His body is full of milk, 1 and the marrow of his bones is moist. 1
25Another man dies in bitterness of soul, 1 one who has never experienced anything good. 1
26They lie down alike in the dust; 1 the worms cover them both. 1
27See, I know your thoughts, 1 and the ways in which you wish to wrong me. 1
28For you say, 'Where now is the house of the prince? 1 Where is the tent in which the wicked man once lived?' 1
29Have you never asked traveling people? 1 Do you not know the evidence they can tell, 1
30that the wicked man is kept from the day of calamity, 1 and that he is led away from the day of wrath? 1
31Who will condemn the wicked man's way to his face? 1 Who will repay him for what he has done? 1
32Yet he will be borne to the grave; 1 men will keep watch over his tomb. 1
33The clods of the valley will be sweet to him; 1 all people will follow after him, 1 as there were innumerable people before him. 1
34How then do you comfort me with nonsense, 1 since in your answers there is nothing but falsehood?”