21:1 Then Job answered:
21:2 “Listen carefully 2 to my words;
let this be 3 the consolation you offer me. 4
21:3 Bear with me 5 and I 6 will speak,
and after I have spoken 7 you may mock. 8
21:4 Is my 9 complaint against a man? 10
If so, 11 why should I not be impatient? 12
21:5 Look 13 at me and be appalled;
put your hands over your mouths. 14
21:6 For, when I think 15 about this, I am terrified 16
and my body feels a shudder. 17
21:7 “Why do the wicked go on living, 18
grow old, 19 even increase in power?
21:8 Their children 20 are firmly established
in their presence, 21
their offspring before their eyes.
21:9 Their houses are safe 22 and without fear; 23
and no rod of punishment 24 from God is upon them. 25
21:10 Their bulls 26 breed 27 without fail; 28
their cows calve and do not miscarry.
21:11 They allow their children to run 29 like a flock;
their little ones dance about.
21:12 They sing 30 to the accompaniment of tambourine and harp,
and make merry to the sound of the flute.
21:13 They live out 31 their years in prosperity
and go down 32 to the grave 33 in peace.
21:14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us!
We do not want to 34 know your ways. 35
21:15 Who is the Almighty, that 36 we should serve him?
What would we gain
if we were to pray 37 to him?’ 38
21:16 But their prosperity is not their own doing. 39
The counsel of the wicked is far from me! 40
21:17 “How often 41 is the lamp of the wicked extinguished?
How often does their 42 misfortune come upon them?
How often does God apportion pain 43 to them 44 in his anger?
21:18 How often 45 are they like straw before the wind,
and like chaff swept away 46 by a whirlwind?
21:19 You may say, 47 ‘God stores up a man’s 48 punishment for his children!’ 49
Instead let him repay 50 the man himself 51
so that 52 he may know it!
21:20 Let his own eyes see his destruction; 53
let him drink of the anger of the Almighty.
21:21 For what is his interest 54 in his home
after his death, 55
when the number of his months
has been broken off? 56
21:22 Can anyone teach 57 God knowledge,
since 58 he judges those that are on high? 59
21:23 “One man dies in his full vigor, 60
completely secure and prosperous,
21:24 his body 61 well nourished, 62
and the marrow of his bones moist. 63
21:25 And another man 64 dies in bitterness of soul, 65
never having tasted 66 anything good.
21:26 Together they lie down in the dust,
and worms cover over them both.
21:27 “Yes, I know what you are thinking, 67
the schemes 68 by which you would wrong me. 69
21:28 For you say,
‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, 70
and where are the tents in which the wicked lived?’ 71
21:29 Have you never questioned those who travel the roads?
Do you not recognize their accounts 72 –
21:30 that the evil man is spared
from the day of his misfortune,
that he is delivered 73
from the day of God’s wrath?
21:31 No one denounces his conduct to his face;
no one repays him for what 74 he has done. 75
21:32 And when he is carried to the tombs,
and watch is kept 76 over the funeral mound, 77
21:33 The clods of the torrent valley 78 are sweet to him;
behind him everybody follows in procession,
and before him goes a countless throng.
21:34 So how can you console me with your futile words?
Nothing is left of your answers but deception!” 79