Vision International Ministries

Job

21:1: Then Job answered,

21:2: "Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.

21:3: Allow me, and I also will speak; After I have spoken, mock on.

21:4: As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn't I be impatient?

21:5: Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.

21:6: When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.

21:7: "Why do the wicked live, Become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?

21:8: Their child is established with them in their sight, Their offspring before their eyes.

21:9: Their houses are safe from fear, Neither is the rod of God upon them.

21:10: Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don't miscarry.

21:11: They send forth their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.

21:12: They sing to the tambourine and harp, And rejoice at the sound of the pipe.

21:13: They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.

21:14: They tell God, 'Depart from us, For we don't want to know about your ways.

21:15: What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?'

21:16: Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand: The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

21:17: "How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes on them? That God distributes sorrows in his anger?

21:18: That they are as stubble before the wind, As chaff that the storm carries away?

21:19: You say, 'God lays up his iniquity for his children.' Let him recompense it to himself, that he may 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 for his house after him, When the number of his months is cut off?

21:22: "Shall any teach God knowledge, Seeing he judges those who are high?

21:23: One dies in his full strength, Being wholly at ease and quiet.

21:24: His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.

21:25: Another dies in bitterness of soul, And never tastes of good.

21:26: They lie down alike in the dust, The worm covers them.

21:27: "Behold, I know your thoughts, The devices with which you would wrong me.

21:28: For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?'

21:29: Haven't you asked wayfaring men? Don't you know their evidences,

21:30: That the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity? That they are led forth to the day of wrath?

21:31: Who shall declare his way to his face? Who shall repay him what he has done?

21:32: Yet shall he be borne to the grave, Men shall keep watch over the tomb.

21:33: The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, As there were innumerable before him.

21:34: So how can you comfort me with nonsense, Seeing that in your answers there remains only falsehood?"