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21:1  Then Job answered:
21:2  Pay close attention to my words; let this be the consolation you offer.
21:3  Bear with me while I speak; then after I have spoken, you may continue mocking.
21:4  As for me, is my complaint against a human being? Then why shouldn’t I be impatient?
21:5  Look at me and shudder; put your hand over your mouth.
21:6  When I think about it, I am terrified and my body trembles in horror.
21:7  Why do the wicked continue to live, growing old and becoming powerful?
21:8  Their children are established while they are still alive, and their descendants, before their eyes.
21:9  Their homes are secure and free of fear; no rod from God strikes them.
21:10  Their bulls breed without fail; their cows calve and do not miscarry.
21:11  They let their little ones run around like lambs; their children skip about,
21:12  singing to the tambourine and lyre and rejoicing at the sound of the flute.
21:13  They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace.
21:14  Yet they say to God, “Leave us alone! We don’t want to know your ways.
21:15  Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him, and what will we gain by pleading with him?”
21:16  But their prosperity is not of their own doing. The counsel of the wicked is far from me!
21:17  How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come on them? Does he apportion destruction in his anger?
21:18  Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff a storm sweeps away?
21:19  God reserves a person’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the person himself, so that he may know it.
21:20  Let his own eyes see his demise; let him drink from the Almighty’s wrath!
21:21  For what does he care about his family once he is dead, when the number of his months has run out?
21:22  Can anyone teach God knowledge, since he judges the exalted ones?
21:23  One person dies in excellent health, completely secure and at ease.
21:24  His body is well fed, and his bones are full of marrow.
21:25  Yet another person dies with a bitter soul, having never tasted prosperity.
21:26  But they both lie in the dust, and worms cover them.
21:27  I know your thoughts very well, the schemes by which you would wrong me.
21:28  For you say, “Where now is the nobleman’s house?” and “Where are the tents the wicked lived in?”
21:29  Have you never consulted those who travel the roads? Don’t you accept their reports?
21:30  Indeed, the evil person is spared from the day of disaster, rescued from the day of wrath.
21:31  Who would denounce his behavior to his face? Who would repay him for what he has done?
21:32  He is carried to the grave, and someone keeps watch over his tomb.
21:33  The dirt on his grave is sweet to him. Everyone follows behind him, and those who go before him are without number.
21:34  So how can you offer me such futile comfort? Your answers are deceptive.