Chapter 21

¹And Job answered and said, ²Hear attentively my speech, and let this replace your consolations. ³Suffer me and I will speak; and after I have spoken, mock on! ⁴As for me, is my complaint to a man? or wherefore should not my spirit be impatient? ⁵Mark me, and be astonished, and lay the hand upon the mouth. ⁶Even when I think [thereon], I am affrighted, and trembling taketh hold of my flesh. ⁷Wherefore do the wicked live, grow old, yea, become mighty in power? ⁸Their seed is established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes. ⁹Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of +God upon them. ¹⁰Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. ¹¹They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. ¹²They shout to the tambour and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe. ¹³They spend their days in prosperity, and in a moment go down to Sheol. ¹⁴And they say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways! ¹⁵What is the Almighty that we should serve him? and what are we profited if we pray unto him? ¹⁶Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked be far from me! ¹⁷How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, and cometh their calamity upon them? Doth he distribute sorrows [to them] in his anger? ¹⁸Do they become as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away? ¹⁹+God layeth up [the punishment of] his iniquity for his children; he rewardeth him, and he shall know [it]: ²⁰His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the fury of the Almighty. ²¹For what pleasure should he have in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off? ²²Can any teach God knowledge? And he it is that judgeth those that are high. ²³One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet; ²⁴His sides are full of fat, and the marrow of his bones is moistened; ²⁵And another dieth in bitterness of soul, and hath not tasted good: ²⁶Together they lie down in the dust, and the worms cover them. ²⁷Lo, I know your thoughts, and the devices ye wrongfully imagine against me. ²⁸For ye say, Where is the house of the noble? and where the tent of the dwellings of the wicked? ²⁹Have ye not asked the wayfarers? and do ye not regard their tokens: ³⁰That the wicked is reserved for the day of calamity? They are led forth to the day of wrath. ³¹Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done? ³²Yet is he carried to the graves, and watch is kept over the tomb. ³³The clods of the valley are sweet unto him; and every man followeth suit after him, as there were innumerable before him. ³⁴How then comfort ye me in vain? Your answers remain perfidious.