Job 21:1-34

. Job 21:1-34 [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? [Exod. 5:2.] [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? [Luke 12:46.] [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? [Rom. 11:34; I Cor. 2:16.] [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?