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21:1  Then Job spoke again:
21:2  "Listen closely to what I am saying. That's one consolation you can give me.
21:3  Bear with me, and let me speak. After I have spoken, you may resume mocking me.
21:4  "My complaint is with God, not with people. I have good reason to be so impatient.
21:5  Look at me and be stunned. Put your hand over your mouth in shock.
21:6  When I think about what I am saying, I shudder. My body trembles.
21:7  "Why do the wicked prosper, growing old and powerful?
21:8  They live to see their children grow up and settle down, and they enjoy their grandchildren.
21:9  Their homes are safe from every fear, and God does not punish them.
21:10  Their bulls never fail to breed. Their cows bear calves and never miscarry.
21:11  They let their children frisk about like lambs. Their little ones skip and dance.
21:12  They sing with tambourine and harp. They celebrate to the sound of the flute.
21:13  They spend their days in prosperity, then go down to the grave in peace.
21:14  And yet they say to God, 'Go away. We want no part of you and your ways.
21:15  Who is the Almighty, and why should we obey him? What good will it do us to pray?'
21:16  (They think their prosperity is of their own doing, but I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.)
21:17  "Yet the light of the wicked never seems to be extinguished. Do they ever have trouble? Does God distribute sorrows to them in anger?
21:18  Are they driven before the wind like straw? Are they carried away by the storm like chaff? Not at all!
21:19  "'Well,' you say, 'at least God will punish their children!' But I say he should punish the ones who sin, so that they understand his judgment.
21:20  Let them see their destruction with their own eyes. Let them drink deeply of the anger of the Almighty.
21:21  For they will not care what happens to their family after they are dead.
21:22  "But who can teach a lesson to God, since he judges even the most powerful?
21:23  One person dies in prosperity, completely comfortable and secure,
21:24  the picture of good health, vigorous and fit.
21:25  Another person dies in bitter poverty, never having tasted the good life.
21:26  But both are buried in the same dust, both eaten by the same maggots.
21:27  "Look, I know what you're thinking. I know the schemes you plot against me.
21:28  You will tell me of rich and wicked people whose houses have vanished because of their sins.
21:29  But ask those who have been around, and they will tell you the truth.
21:30  Evil people are spared in times of calamity and are allowed to escape disaster.
21:31  No one criticizes them openly or pays them back for what they have done.
21:32  When they are carried to the grave, an honor guard keeps watch at their tomb.
21:33  A great funeral procession goes to the cemetery. Many pay their respects as the body is laid to rest, and the earth gives sweet repose.
21:34  "How can your empty cliches comfort me? All your explanations are lies!"