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21:1  Then Job answered,
21:2  Hear diligently my speech, and let this [your attention] be your consolation [given me].
21:3  Allow me, and I also will speak; and after I have spoken, mock on.
21:4  As for me, is my complaint to man or of him? And why should I not be impatient and my spirit be troubled?
21:5  Look at me and be astonished (appalled); and lay your hand upon your mouth.
21:6  Even when I remember, I am troubled and afraid; horror and trembling take hold of my flesh.
21:7  Why do the wicked live, become old, and become mighty in power?
21:8  Their children are established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes.
21:9  Their houses are safe and in peace, without fear; neither is the rod of God upon them.
21:10  Their bull breeds and fails not; their cows calve and do not miscarry.
21:11  They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children skip about.
21:12  They themselves lift up their voices and sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
21:13  They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol (the unseen state) in a moment and peacefully.
21:14  Yet they say to God, Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.
21:15  Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?
21:16  But notice, [you say] the prosperity of the wicked is not in their power; the mystery [of God’s dealings] with the ungodly is far from my comprehension.
21:17  How often [then] is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains and sorrows to them in His anger?
21:18  That they are like stubble before the wind and like chaff that the storm steals and carries away?
21:19  You say, God lays up [the punishment of the wicked man’s] iniquity for his children. Let Him recompense it to the man himself, that he may know and feel it.
21:20  Let his own eyes see his destruction, and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21:21  For what pleasure or interest has a man in his house and family after he is dead, when the number of his months is cut off?
21:22  Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing that He judges those who are on high?
21:23  One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet;
21:24  His pails are full of milk [his veins are filled with nourishment], and the marrow of his bones is fresh and moist,
21:25  Whereas another man dies in bitterness of soul and never tastes of pleasure or good fortune.
21:26  They lie down alike in the dust, and the worm spreads a covering over them.
21:27  Behold, I know your thoughts and plans and the devices with which you would wrong me.
21:28  For you say, Where is the house of the rich and liberal prince [meaning me]? And where is the tent in which the wicked [Job] dwelt?
21:29  Have you not asked those who travel this way, and do you not accept their testimony and evidences—
21:30  That the evil man is [now] spared in the day of calamity and destruction, and they are led forth and away on the day of [God’s] wrath?
21:31  But who declares [a man’s] way [and rebukes] him to his face? And who pays him back for what he has done?
21:32  When he is borne to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb.
21:33  The clods of the valley are sweet to him, and every man shall follow him to a grave, as innumerable people [have gone] before him.
21:34  How then can you comfort me with empty and futile words, since in your replies there lurks falsehood?