Job 21

1Then Job answered and said:

2Listen carefully to my words, and let this be your consolation.

3Bear with me, and I will speak; and after I have spoken, you may mock.

4As for me, is my complaint addressed to a man? If it were, why should my spirit not be impatient?

5Turn to me and be appalled, and put your hand over your mouth.

6When I remember, I am dismayed, and trembling seizes my flesh.

7Why do the wicked live on, grow old, and even become mighty in wealth?

8Their offspring are established in their presence, alongside them; their descendants are before their eyes.

9Their houses are safe from fear, and the rod of God is not upon them.

10His bull breeds and does not fail; his cow calves and does not miscarry.

11They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.

12They raise their voices to the tambourine and lyre, and rejoice at the sound of the flute.

13They spend their days in prosperity, and in a moment they go down to Sheol.

14Yet they say to God, “Depart from us, and we do not desire the knowledge of your ways.”

15What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what would we gain if we plead with him?

16Look, their prosperity is not in their own hands. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

17How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, and how often does their disaster come upon them? How often does he apportion pains in his anger?

18How often are they like straw before the wind and like chaff that a storm carries away?

19Does God store up a man's punishment for his sons? Let him repay it to the man himself, so that he may know it.

20Let his own eyes see his ruin, and let him drink the wrath of the Almighty.

21For what does he care about his house after him, and the number of his months is apportioned?

22Can anyone teach God knowledge, since he judges those on high?

23One dies in the fullness of his vigor, wholly at ease and secure.

24His pails are full of milk, and the marrow of his bones is well-watered.

25while another dies with a bitter soul and has not enjoyed good.

26Together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them.

27Look, I know your thoughts, and the schemes with which you would wrong me.

28For you say, ‘Where is the house of the noble man, and where is the tent, the dwelling place of the wicked?’

29Have you not asked those who travel the road, and do you not recognize their signs?

30For the evil man is spared for the day of disaster; they are led away for the day of wrath.

31Who declares his way to his face? And for what he has done, who repays him?

32Yet he is carried to the grave, and over the mound one keeps watch.

33The clods of the valley are sweet to him; all mankind follows after him, and those before him are without number.

34How then can you comfort me with emptiness, when your answers remain nothing but treachery?