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21:1  Then Job answered and said,
21:2  “Listen carefully to my words, and let this be your consolation.
21:3  Bear with me, and I myself will speak; then after my speaking you can mock.
21:4  As for me, is my complaint for human beings? And if so, why cannot I be impatient?
21:5  Turn to me and be appalled, and place your hand on your mouth.
21:6  And when I think of it, I am horrified, and shuddering seizes my flesh.
21:7  “Why do the wicked live, grow old, even grow mighty in power?
21:8  With them their offspring are established before them, and their descendants before their eyes.
21:9  Their houses are safe without fear, and the rod of God is not upon them.
21:10  His bull breeds and does not fail; his cow calves and does not miscarry.
21:11  They send out their little ones like the flock, and their children dance around.
21:12  They sing to the tambourine and lyre, and they rejoice to the sound of the long flute.
21:13  They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol.
21:14  And they say to God, ‘Turn away from us, for we do not desire to know your ways.
21:15  Who is Shaddai that we should serve him, or what would we benefit when we plead with him?’
21:16  Look, their prosperity is not in their hands; the schemes of the wicked are repugnant to me.
21:17  “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, and their disaster comes upon them? He distributes pains in his anger.
21:18  How often are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?
21:19  ‘God stores up his iniquity for his children’? Then let him repay it to him that he may know.
21:20  Let his eyes see his decay, and let him drink from the wrath of Shaddai,
21:21  for what does he care for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
21:22  Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since he himself judges high ones?
21:23  This one dies in full prosperity, completely at ease and secure.
21:24  His vats are full with milk and the marrow of his bones is moist.
21:25  Yet another dies with a bitter inner self and has not tasted prosperity.
21:26  They lie down together in the dust, and maggots cover them.
21:27  “Look, I know your thoughts and the schemes you devise against me.
21:28  For you say, ‘Where is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’
21:29  Do you not ask those traveling the roads, and do you not take notice of their accounts?
21:30  Indeed, the wicked is spared from the day of disaster; he is delivered from the day of wrath.
21:31  Who denounces his way to his face? And who repays him for what he has done?
21:32  When he is brought to the grave, then someone stands guard over the tomb.
21:33  The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone will follow after him, and before him they are innumerable.
21:34  So how will you comfort me with emptiness, when fraud is left in your answers?”