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21:1  Then Job answered and said:
21:2  At least listen to my words, and let that be the consolation you offer.
21:3  Bear with me while I speak; and after I have spoken, you can mock!
21:4  Is my complaint toward any human being? Why should I not be impatient?
21:5  Look at me and be appalled, put your hands over your mouths.
21:6  When I think of it, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh.
21:7  Why do the wicked keep on living, grow old, become mighty in power?
21:8  Their progeny is secure in their sight; their offspring are before their eyes.
21:9  Their homes are safe, without fear, and the rod of God is not upon them.
21:10  Their bulls breed without fail; their cows calve and do not miscarry.
21:11  They let their young run free like sheep, their children skip about.
21:12  They sing along with drum and lyre, and make merry to the sound of the pipe.
21:13  They live out their days in prosperity, and tranquilly go down to Sheol.
21:14  Yet they say to God, “Depart from us, for we have no desire to know your ways!
21:15  What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what do we gain by praying to him?”
21:16  Their happiness is not in their own hands. The designs of the wicked are far from me!
21:17  How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does destruction come upon them, the portion God allots in his anger?
21:18  Let them be like straw before the wind, like chaff the storm carries away!
21:19  “God is storing up the man’s misery for his children”?— let him requite the man himself so that he knows it!
21:20  Let his own eyes behold his calamity, and the wrath of the Almighty let him drink!
21:21  For what interest has he in his family after him, when the number of his months is finished?
21:22  Can anyone teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those on high?
21:23  One dies in his full vigor, wholly at ease and content;
21:24  His figure is full and nourished, his bones are moist with marrow.
21:25  Another dies with a bitter spirit, never having tasted happiness.
21:26  Alike they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both.
21:27  See, I know your thoughts, and the arguments you plot against me.
21:28  For you say, “Where is the house of the great, and where the dwelling place of the wicked?”
21:29  Have you not asked the wayfarers and do you not acknowledge the witness they give?
21:30  On the day of calamity the evil man is spared, on the day that wrath is released.
21:31  Who will charge him to his face about his conduct, and for what he has done who will repay him?
21:32  He is carried to the grave and at his tomb they keep watch.
21:33  Sweet to him are the clods of the valley. All humankind will follow after him, and countless others before him.
21:34  How empty the consolation you offer me! Your arguments remain a fraud.