Job 21
21:1 Then Job answered,
21:2 "Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.
21:3 Allow me, and I also will speak; After I have spoken, mock on.
21:4 As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn't I be impatient?
21:5 Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.
21:6 When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.
21:7 "Why do the wicked live, Become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?
21:8 Their child is established with them in their sight, Their offspring before their eyes.
21:9 Their houses are safe from fear, Neither is the rod of God upon them.
21:10 Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don't miscarry.
21:11 They send forth their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.
21:12 They sing to the tambourine and harp, And rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
21:13 They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.
21:14 They tell God, 'Depart from us, For we don't want to know about your ways.
21:15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?'
21:16 Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand: The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
21:17 "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?
21:18 That they are as stubble before the wind, As chaff that the storm carries away?
21:19 You say, 'God lays up his iniquity for his children.' Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.
21:20 Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21:21 For what does he care for his house after him, When the number of his months is cut off?
21:22 "Shall any teach God knowledge, Seeing he judges those who are high?
21:23 One dies in his full strength, Being wholly at ease and quiet.
21:24 His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.
21:25 Another dies in bitterness of soul, And never tastes of good.
21:26 They lie down alike in the dust, The worm covers them.
21:27 "Behold, I know your thoughts, The devices with which you would wrong me.
21:28 For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?'
21:29 Haven't you asked wayfaring men? Don't you know their evidences,
21:30 That the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity? That they are led forth to the day of wrath?
21:31 Who shall declare his way to his face? Who shall repay him what he has done?
21:32 Yet shall he be borne to the grave, Men shall keep watch over the tomb.
21:33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, As there were innumerable before him.
21:34 So how can you comfort me with nonsense, Seeing that in your answers there remains only falsehood?"