Chapter 21

  Then Job answered,  

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  'Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.  

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  Allow me, and I also will speak; After I have spoken, mock on.  

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  As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn't I be impatient?  

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  Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.  

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  When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.  

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  'Why do the wicked live, Become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?  

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  Their child is established with them in their sight, Their offspring before their eyes.  

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  Their houses are safe from fear, Neither is the rod of God upon them.  

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  Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don't miscarry.  

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  They send forth their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.  

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

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  They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.  

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  They tell God, 'Depart from us, For we don't want to know about your ways.  

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  What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?'  

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  Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand: The counsel of the wicked is far from me.  

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  'How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes on them? That God distributes sorrows in his anger?  

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  That they are as stubble before the wind, As chaff that the storm carries away?  

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  You say, 'God lays up his iniquity for his children.' Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.  

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  Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.  

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  For what does he care for his house after him, When the number of his months is cut off?  

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  'Shall any teach God knowledge, Seeing he judges those who are high?  

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  One dies in his full strength, Being wholly at ease and quiet.  

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  His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.  

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  Another dies in bitterness of soul, And never tastes of good.  

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  They lie down alike in the dust, The worm covers them.  

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  'Behold, I know your thoughts, The devices with which you would wrong me.  

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  For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?'  

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  Haven't you asked wayfaring men? Don't you know their evidences,  

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  That the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity? That they are led forth to the day of wrath?  

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  Who shall declare his way to his face? Who shall repay him what he has done?  

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  Yet shall he be borne to the grave, Men shall keep watch over the tomb.  

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  The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, As there were innumerable before him.  

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  So how can you comfort me with nonsense, Seeing that in your answers there remains only falsehood?'  

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