Job Chapter 21

Job shews that the wicked often prosper in this world, even to the end of their life: but that their judgment is in another world.

21:1. Then Job answered, and said:

21:2. Hear, I beseech you, my words, and do penance.

21:3. Suffer me, and I will speak, and after, if you please, laugh at my words.

21:4. Is my debate against man, that I should not have just reason to be troubled?

21:5. Hearken to me and be astonished, and lay your finger on your mouth.

21:6. As for me, when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.

21:7. Why then do the wicked live, are they advanced, and strengthened with riches?

21:8. Their seed continueth before them, a multitude of kinsmen, and of children's children in their sight.

21:9. Their houses are secure and peaceable, and the rod of God is not upon them.

21:10. Their cattle have conceived, and failed not: their cow has calved, and is not deprived of her fruit.

21:11. Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children dance and play.

21:12. They take the timbrel, and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.

21:13. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell.

21:14. Who have said to God: Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

21:15. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what doth it profit us if we pray to him?

21:16. Yet because their good things are not in their hand, may the counsel of the wicked be far from me.

21:17. How 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?

21:18. They shall be as chaff before the face of the wind, and as ashes which the whirlwind scattereth.

21:19. God shall lay up the sorrow of the father for his children: and when he shall repay, then shall he know.

21:20. His eyes shall see his own destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

21:21. For what is it to him what befalleth his house after him: and if the number of his months be diminished by one half?

21:22. Shall any one teach God knowledge, who judgeth those that are high?

21:23. One man dieth strong, and hale, rich and happy.

21:24. His bowels are full of fat, and his bones are moistened with marrow.

21:25. But another dieth in bitterness of soul without any riches:

21:26. And yet they shall sleep together in the dust, and worms shall cover them.

21:27. Surely I know your thoughts, and your unjust judgments against me.

21:28. For you say: Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?

21:29. Ask any one of them that go by the way, and you shall perceive that he knoweth these same things.

21:30. Because the wicked man is reserved to the day of destruction, and he shall be brought to the day of wrath.

21:31. Who shall reprove his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?

21:32. He shall be brought to the graves, and shall watch in the heap of the dead.

21:33. He hath been acceptable to the gravel of Cocytus, and he shall draw every man after him, and there are innumerable before him.

Acceptable to the gravel of Cocytus. . .The Hebrew word, which St. Jerome has here rendered by the name Cocytus, (which the poets represent as a river in hell,) signifies a valley or a torrent: and in this place, is taken for the low region of death and hell: which willingly, as it were, receives the wicked at their death: who are ushered in by innumerable others that have gone before them; and are followed by multitudes above number.

21:34. How then do ye comfort me in vain, whereas your answer is shewn to be repugnant to truth?