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? |