Job 21

Job Chapter 21 ESV

1Job desireth to be patiently heard because of his strange calamities: 7he sheweth that wicked men sometimes do so prosper, that they are tempted to forget God: 16though at other times their destruction is manifest. 23The happy and unhappy are alike in death. 27The judgment of the wicked is in another world.
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 1“Keep listening to my words, and let this be your comfort.
3 Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, 1mock on.
4 As for me, is my 1complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient?
5 Look at me and be appalled, and 1lay your hand over your mouth.
6 When I remember, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh.
7 1Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
8 Their 1offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes.
9 Their houses are 1safe from fear, and 2no rod of God is upon them.
10 Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and 1does not miscarry.
11 They send out their 1little boys like a flock, and their children dance.
12 They sing to 1the tambourine and 2the lyre and rejoice to the sound of 3the pipe.
13 They 1spend their days in prosperity, and in 2peace they go down to 3Sheol.
14 They say to God, 1‘Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.
15 1What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what 2profit do we get if we pray to him?’
16 Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? 1The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17 “How often is it that 1the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That Goda distributes pains in his anger?
18 That they are like 1straw before the wind, and like 2chaff that the storm carries away?
19 You say, ‘God 1stores up their iniquity for their 2children.’ Let him pay it out to them, that they may 3know it.
20 Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them 1drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what do they care for their houses after them, when 1the number of their months is cut off?
22 1Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he 2judges those who are on high?
23 One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure,
24 his pailsa full of milk and 1the marrow of his bones moist.
25 Another dies in 1bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity.
26 They 1lie down alike in the dust, and 2the worms cover them.
27 “Behold, I know your thoughts and your schemes to wrong me.
28 For you say, 1‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is 2the tent in which the wicked lived?’
29 Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony
30 that 1the evil man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath?
31 Who declares his way 1to his face, and who 2repays him for what he has done?
32 When he is 1carried to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb.
33 1The clods of the valley are sweet to him; 2all mankind follows after him, and those who go before him are innumerable.
34 How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”
Job 21

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