Job - Chapter 21

¹ Job spoke next. He said:

² Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you allow me.

³ Permit me to speak in my turn; you may jeer when I have spoken.

⁴ Is my complaint just about a fellow-mortal? I have good grounds to be perturbed!

⁵ Give your attention to me; you will be dumbfounded and will place your hand over your mouth.

⁶ I myself am appalled at the very thought, and my flesh creeps.

⁷ Why do the wicked still live on, their power increasing with their age?

⁸ They see their posterity assured, and their offspring secure before their eyes.

⁹ The peace of their houses has nothing to fear, the rod that God wields is not for them.

¹⁰ No mishap with their bull at breeding-time, nor miscarriage with their cow at calving.

¹¹ They let their infants frisk like lambs, their children dance like deer.

¹² They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

¹³ They end their lives in happiness and go down in peace to Sheol.

¹⁴ Yet these are the ones who say to God, 'Go away! We do not want to learn your ways.

¹⁵ What is the point of our serving Shaddai? What should we gain from praying to him?'

¹⁶ Surely they have won their own prosperity, since God is kept so far from their plans?

¹⁷ Do we often see the light of the wicked put out, or disaster overtake him, or the retribution of God destroy his possessions,

¹⁸ or the wind blow him away like a straw, or a whirlwind carry him off like chaff?

¹⁹ So God is storing up punishment for his children? But the wicked himself should be punished, and should know it!

²⁰ He himself should witness his own ruin, and himself drink the anger of Shaddai.

²¹ Once he is gone, what joy can he gain from his family, once the number of his months has been cut off?

²² But who can teach wisdom to God, to him who is judge of those on high?

²³ And again: one person dies in the fullness of strength, in all possible happiness and ease,

²⁴ thighs padded with fat and the marrow in the bones good and moist.

²⁵ Another dies in bitterness of heart, never having tasted happiness.

²⁶ They lie together down in the dust and the worms soon cover them both.

²⁷ Oh, I know what is in your minds, what you so spitefully think about me!

²⁸ 'What has become of the great lord's house,' you say, 'where is the tent where the wicked used to live?'

²⁹ Have you never questioned people who travel, do you not understand the testimony they give:

³⁰ on the day of disaster, the wicked is spared, on the day of retribution, he is kept safe?

³¹ And who is there then to reproach him for his deeds and to pay him back for the things he has done?

³² He is carried away to the cemetery, and a watch is kept at his tomb.

³³ The clods of the ravine lie easy on him, and the whole population walk behind.

³⁴ So what sense is there in your empty consolation? your answers are the left-overs of infidelity!

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