Job 21:1-20 ▼

1 But Job answered and said,

2 Hear ye, hear ye my words, that I may not have this consolation from you.

3 Raise me, and I will speak; then ye shall not laugh me to scorn.

4 What! is my reproof of man? and why should I not be angry?

5 Look upon me, and wonder, laying your hand upon your cheek.

6 For even when I remember, I am alarmed, and pains seize my flesh.

7 Wherefore do the ungodly live, and grow old even in wealth?

8 Their seed is according to their desire, and their children are in their sight.

9 Their houses are prosperous, neither have they any where cause for fear, neither is there a scourge from the Lord upon them.

10 Their cow does not cast her calf, and their beast with young is safe, and does not miscarry.

11 And they remain as an unfailing flock, and their children play before them , taking up the psaltery and harp;

12 and they rejoice at the voice of a song.

13 And they spend their days in wealth, and fall asleep in the rest of the grave.

14 Yet such a man says to the Lord, Depart from me; I desire not to know thy ways.

15 What is the Mighty One, that we should serve him? and what profit is there that we should approach him?

16 For their good things were in their hands, but he regards not the works of the ungodly.

17 Nevertheless, the lamp of the ungodly also shall be put out, and destruction shall come upon them, and pangs of vengeance shall seize them.

18 And they shall be as chaff before the wind, or as dust which the storm has taken up.

19 Let his substance fail to supply his children: God shall recompense him, and he shall know it.

20 Let his eyes see his own destruction, and let him not be saved by the Lord.