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Job  


21 : 1 Then Job replied:
21 : 2 Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you give me.
21 : 3 Bear with me while I speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.
21 : 4 Is my complaint directed to man? Why should I not be impatient?
21 : 5 Look at me and be astonished; clap your hand over your mouth.
21 : 6 When I think about this, I am terrified; trembling seizes my body.
21 : 7 Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?
21 : 8 They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes.
21 : 9 Their homes are safe and free from fear; the rod of God is not upon them.
21 : 10 Their bulls never fail to breed; their cows calve and do not miscarry.
21 : 11 They send forth their children as a flock; their little ones dance about.
21 : 12 They sing to the music of tambourine and harp; they make merry to the sound of the flute.
21 : 13 They spend their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace.
21 : 14 Yet they say to God, `Leave us alone! We have no desire to know your ways.
21 : 15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?`
21 : 16 But their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stand aloof from the counsel of the wicked.
21 : 17 Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out? How often does calamity come upon them, the fate God allots in his anger?
21 : 18 How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a gale?
21 : 19 It is said, `God stores up a man`s punishment for his sons.` Let him repay the man himself, so that he will know it!
21 : 20 Let his own eyes see his destruction; let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 : 21 For what does he care about the family he leaves behind when his allotted months come to an end?
21 : 22 Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since he judges even the highest?
21 : 23 One man dies in full vigor, completely secure and at ease,
21 : 24 his body well nourished, his bones rich with marrow.
21 : 25 Another man dies in bitterness of soul, never having enjoyed anything good.
21 : 26 Side by side they lie in the dust, and worms cover them both.
21 : 27 I know full well what you are thinking, the schemes by which you would wrong me.
21 : 28 You say, `Where now is the great man`s house, the tents where wicked men lived?`
21 : 29 Have you never questioned those who travel? Have you paid no regard to their accounts-
21 : 30 that the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, that he is delivered from the day of wrath?
21 : 31 Who denounces his conduct to his face? Who repays him for what he has done?
21 : 32 He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.
21 : 33 The soil in the valley is sweet to him; all men follow after him, and a countless throng goes before him.
21 : 34 So how can you console me with your nonsense? Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!