Chapter 21

¹Then Job answered, and said: ²Hear, I beseech you, my words, and do penance. ³Suffer me, and I will speak, and after, if you please, laugh at my words. ⁴Is my debate against man, that I should not have just reason to be troubled? ⁵Hearken to me and be astonished, and lay your finger on your mouth. ⁶As for me, when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh. ⁷Why then do the wicked live, are they advanced, and strengthened with riches? ⁸Their seed continueth before them, a multitude of kinsmen, and of children's children in their sight. ⁹Their houses are secure and peaceable, and the rod of God is not upon them. ¹⁰Their cattle have conceived, and failed not: their cow has calved, and is not deprived of her fruit. ¹¹Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children dance and play. ¹²They take the timbrel, and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. ¹³They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell. ¹⁴Who have said to God: Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. ¹⁵Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what doth it profit us if we pray to him? ¹⁶Yet because their good things are not in their hand, may the counsel of the wicked be far from me. ¹⁷How often shall the lamp of the wicked be put out, and a deluge come upon them, and he shall distribute the sorrows of his wrath? ¹⁸They shall be as chaff before the face of the wind, and as ashes which the whirlwind scattereth. ¹⁹God shall lay up the sorrow of the father for his children: and when he shall repay, then shall he know. ²⁰His eyes shall see his own destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty. ²¹For what is it to him what befalleth his house after him: and if the number of his months be diminished by one half? ²²Shall any one teach God knowledge, who judgeth those that are high? ²³One man dieth strong, and hale, rich and happy. ²⁴His bowels are full of fat, and his bones are moistened with marrow. ²⁵But another dieth in bitterness of soul without any riches: ²⁶And yet they shall sleep together in the dust, and worms shall cover them. ²⁷Surely I know your thoughts, and your unjust judgments against me. ²⁸For you say: Where is the house of the prince ? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked? ²⁹Ask any one of them that go by the way, and you shall perceive that he knoweth these same things. ³⁰Because the wicked man is reserved to the day of destruction, and he shall be brought to the day of wrath. ³¹Who shall reprove his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done? ³²He shall be brought to the graves, and shall watch in the heap of the dead. ³³He hath been acceptable to the gravel of Cocytus, and he shall draw every man after him, and there are innumerable before him. ³⁴How then do ye comfort me in vain, whereas your answer is shewn to be repugnant to truth ?