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Job 21

¹Then Job answered,

²"Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.

³Allow me, and I also will speak; After I have spoken, mock on.

⁴As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn`t I be impatient?

⁵Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.

⁶When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.

⁷"Why do the wicked live, Become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?

⁸Their child is established with them in their sight, Their offspring before their eyes.

⁹Their houses are safe from fear, Neither is the rod of God upon them.

¹⁰Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don`t miscarry.

¹¹They send forth their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.

¹²They sing to the tambourine and harp, And rejoice at the sound of the pipe.

¹³They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.

¹⁴They tell God, `Depart from us, For we don`t want to know about your ways.

¹⁵What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?`

¹⁶Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand: The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁷"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?

¹⁸That they are as stubble before the wind, As chaff that the storm carries away?

¹⁹You say, `God lays up his iniquity for his children.` Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.

²⁰Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

²¹For what does he care for his house after him, When the number of his months is cut off?

²²"Shall any teach God knowledge, Seeing he judges those who are high?

²³One dies in his full strength, Being wholly at ease and quiet.

²⁴His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.

²⁵Another dies in bitterness of soul, And never tastes of good.

²⁶They lie down alike in the dust, The worm covers them.

²⁷"Behold, I know your thoughts, The devices with which you would wrong me.

²⁸For you say, `Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?`

²⁹Haven`t you asked wayfaring men? Don`t you know their evidences,

³⁰That the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity? That they are led forth to the day of wrath?

³¹Who shall declare his way to his face? Who shall repay him what he has done?

³²Yet shall he be borne to the grave, Men shall keep watch over the tomb.

³³The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, As there were innumerable before him.

³⁴So how can you comfort me with nonsense, Seeing that in your answers there remains only falsehood?"

Job 21 (WEB)

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Job

Chapter 21

21 of 42