21:2 “Listen carefully to my words; let this be your consolation.
21:3 Bear with me as I speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.
21:4 As for me, is my complaint against man? If so, why should I not be impatient?
21:5 Look at me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth.
21:6 When I think of it, I am terrified and my flesh shudders.
21:7 Why do the wicked go on living, growing old and increasing in power?
21:8 Their children are established in their presence, their offspring before their eyes.
21:9 Their homes have peace and are free from fear; no rod of God is on them.
21:10 His bull breeds without fail; his cow calves and do not miscarry.
21:11 They send out their little ones like a flock and their children dance.
21:12 They sing to the tambourine and harp and rejoice at the sound of the flute.
21:13 They spend their days in prosperity, and in a moment go down to Sheol.
21:14 Yet they say to God, ‘Leave us alone! We have no desire to know Your ways.
21:15 Who is Shaddai that we should serve Him? What would we gain if we pray to Him?’
21:16 Look, their prosperity is not in their own hands; the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
21:17 “How often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out or calamity fallen on them? How often does He allot pain in His anger?
21:18 How often are they like straw before the wind; like chaff swept away by a storm?
21:19 You say, ‘God stores up the punishment for his children.’ Let Him repay the wicked so he may know it!
21:20 Let his own eyes see his ruin; let him drink the wrath of Shaddai.
21:21 For what does he care for his family that he leaves behind, when the number of his months has come to an end?
21:22 “Can anyone teach God knowledge, since He judges even the highest.
21:23 One dies in his full strength, completely secure and at ease.
21:24 His pails are full of milk; His bones are moist with marrow.
21:25 Yet another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted goodness.
21:26 Together they lie in the dust and worms cover over them.
21:27 “Behold, I know your thoughts, the schemes by which you wrong me.
21:28 For you ask, ‘Where is the nobleman’s house and the tent where the wicked lived?’
21:29 Have you not asked travelers? Do you not recognize their accounts
21:30 that the wicked are spared for the day of calamity that they are brought to the day of wrath?
21:31 Who declares his conduct to his face? Who repays him for what he has done?
21:32 He is brought to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.
21:33 The soil in the valley is sweet to him; everyone follows after him, and countless are those before him.
21:34 “So how will your futility comfort me, for your answers remain nothing but falsehood?”
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