21:1  Then Job replied:

21:2  "Listen carefully to my words;
let this be the consolation you give me.

21:3  Bear with me while I speak,
and after I have spoken, mock on.

21:4  "Is my complaint directed to man?
Why should I not be impatient?

21:5  Look at me and be astonished;
clap your hand over your mouth.

21:6  When I think about this, I am terrified;
trembling seizes my body.

21:7  Why do the wicked live on,
growing old and increasing in power?

21:8  They see their children established around them,
their offspring before their eyes.

21:9  Their homes are safe and free from fear;
the rod of God is not upon them.

21:10  Their bulls never fail to breed;
their cows calve and do not miscarry.

21:11  They send forth their children as a flock;
their little ones dance about.

21:12  They sing to the music of tambourine and harp;
they make merry to the sound of the flute.

21:13  They spend their years in prosperity
and go down to the grave in peace.

21:14  Yet they say to God, 'Leave us alone!
We have no desire to know your ways.

21:15  Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
What would we gain by praying to him?'

21:16  But their prosperity is not in their own hands,
so I stand aloof from the counsel of the wicked.

21:17  "Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?
How often does calamity come upon them,
the fate God allots in his anger?

21:18  How often are they like straw before the wind,
like chaff swept away by a gale?

21:19  It is said, 'God stores up a man's punishment for his sons.'
Let him repay the man himself, so that he will know it!

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

21:21  For what does he care about the family he leaves behind
when his allotted months come to an end?

21:22  "Can anyone teach knowledge to God,
since he judges even the highest?

21:23  One man dies in full vigor,
completely secure and at ease,

21:24  his body well nourished,
his bones rich with marrow.

21:25  Another man dies in bitterness of soul,
never having enjoyed anything good.

21:26  Side by side they lie in the dust,
and worms cover them both.

21:27  "I know full well what you are thinking,
the schemes by which you would wrong me.

21:28  You say, 'Where now is the great man's house,
the tents where wicked men lived?'

21:29  Have you never questioned those who travel?
Have you paid no regard to their accounts-

21:30  that the evil man is spared from the day of calamity,
that he is delivered from the day of wrath?

21:31  Who denounces his conduct to his face?
Who repays him for what he has done?

21:32  He is carried to the grave,
and watch is kept over his tomb.

21:33  The soil in the valley is sweet to him;
all men follow after him,
and a countless throng goes before him.

21:34  "So how can you console me with your nonsense?
Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!"