| 1 | Then Job answered, |
| 2 | Hear diligently my speech, and let this [your attention] be your consolation [given me]. |
| 3 | Allow me, and I also will speak; and after I have spoken, mock on. |
| 4 | As for me, is my complaint to man
or
of him? And why should I not be impatient
and
my spirit be troubled? |
| 5 | Look at me and be astonished (appalled); and lay your hand upon your mouth. |
| 6 | Even when I remember, I am troubled
and
afraid; horror
and
trembling take hold of my flesh. |
| 7 | Why do the wicked live, become old, and become mighty in power? |
| 8 | Their children are established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes. |
| 9 | Their houses are safe
and
in peace, without fear; neither is the rod of God upon them. |
| 10 | Their bull breeds and fails not; their cows calve and do not miscarry. |
| 11 | They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children skip about. |
| 12 | They themselves lift up their voices
and
sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe. |
| 13 | They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol (the unseen state) in a moment
and
peacefully. |
| 14 | Yet they say to God, Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways. |
| 15 | Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him? |
| 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. |
| 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? |
| 18 | That they are like stubble before the wind and like chaff that the storm steals
and
carries away? |
| 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. |
| 20 | Let his own eyes see his destruction, and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. |
| 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? |
| 22 | Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing that He judges those who are on high? |
| 23 | One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet; |
| 24 | His pails are full of milk [his veins are filled with nourishment], and the marrow of his bones is fresh
and
moist, |
| 25 | Whereas another man dies in bitterness of soul and never tastes of pleasure
or
good fortune. |
| 26 | They lie down alike in the dust, and the worm spreads a covering over them. |
| 27 | Behold, I know your thoughts
and
plans and the devices with which you would wrong me. |
| 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? |
| 29 | Have you not asked those who travel this way, and do you not accept their testimony
and
evidences— |
| 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? |
| 31 | But who declares [a man’s] way [and rebukes] him to his face? And who pays him back for what he has done? |
| 32 | When he is borne to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb. |
| 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. |
| 34 | How then can you comfort me with empty
and
futile words, since in your replies there lurks falsehood? |
Cross references:
-
Job 21:15 : Exod. 5:2.
-
Job 21:17 : Luke 12:46.
-
Job 21:22 : Rom. 11:34; I Cor. 2:16.
|