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!"