21:1  THEN JOB answered,

21:2  Hear diligently my speech, and let this [your attention] be your consolation [given me].

21:3  Allow me, and I also will speak; and after I have spoken, mock on.

21:4  As for me, is my complaint to man {or} of him? And why should I not be impatient {and} my spirit be troubled?

21:5  Look at me and be astonished (appalled); and lay your hand upon your mouth.

21:6  Even when I remember, I am troubled {and} afraid; horror {and} trembling take hold of my flesh.

21:7  Why do the wicked live, become old, and become mighty in power?

21:8  Their children are established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes.

21:9  Their houses are safe {and} in peace, without fear; neither is the rod of God upon them.

21:10  Their bull breeds and fails not; their cows calve and do not miscarry.

21:11  They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children skip about.

21:12  They themselves lift up their voices {and} sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

21:13  They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol (the unseen state) in a moment {and} peacefully.

21:14  Yet they say to God, Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.

21:15  Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?

21:16  But notice, [you say] the prosperity of the wicked is not in their power; the mystery [of God's dealings] with the ungodly is far from my comprehension.

21:17  How often [then] is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains {and} sorrows to them in His anger?

21:18  That they are like stubble before the wind and like chaff that the storm steals {and} carries away?

21:19  You say, God lays up [the punishment of the wicked man's] iniquity for his children. Let Him recompense it to the man himself, that he may know {and} feel it.

21:20  Let his own eyes see his destruction, and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

21:21  For what pleasure {or} interest has a man in his house {and} family after he is dead, when the number of his months is cut off?

21:22  Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing that He judges those who are on high?

21:23  One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet;

21:24  His pails are full of milk [his veins are filled with nourishment], and the marrow of his bones is fresh {and} moist,

21:25  Whereas another man dies in bitterness of soul and never tastes of pleasure {or} good fortune.

21:26  They lie down alike in the dust, and the worm spreads a covering over them.

21:27  Behold, I know your thoughts {and} plans and the devices with which you would wrong me.

21:28  For you say, Where is the house of the rich {and} liberal prince [meaning me]? And where is the tent in which the wicked [Job] dwelt?

21:29  Have you not asked those who travel this way, and do you not accept their testimony {and} evidences--

21:30  That the evil man is [now] spared in the day of calamity {and} destruction, and they are led forth {and} away on the day of [God's] wrath?

21:31  But who declares [a man's] way [and rebukes] him to his face? And who pays him back for what he has done?

21:32  When he is borne to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb.

21:33  The clods of the valley are sweet to him, and every man shall follow him to a grave, as innumerable people [have gone] before him.

21:34  How then can you comfort me with empty {and} futile words, since in your replies there lurks falsehood?