Job 21:1-26 ▼

1 THEN Job answered and said,

2 Listen diligently to my speech, and let this be your consolation.

3 Suffer me that I may speak; and after I have spoken, then mock on.

4 I will utter my complaint to men, why my spirit is distressed.

5 Return to me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.

6 Even when I think of it, I tremble, and terror takes hold of my flesh.

7 Why do the ungodly live, and why are the mighty in power full of years?

8 Their descendants are established in their sight with them, and their children before their eyes.

9 Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.

10 Their bull breeds, and fails not; their cow calves, and does not cast her calf.

11 Their children stand firm like a flock, and their boys dance.

12 They take the timbrels and harps, and rejoice at the sound of singing.

13 They spend their days in prosperity, and then suddenly go down to Sheol.

14 They say to God, Depart from us; for we do not desire to know thy ways.

15 Moreover, they say, Who is God, that we should serve him? And what would we gain, that we should pray to him?

16 Lo, they have no power over their prosperity; the counsel of the ungodly is far from me.

17 How often is it that the wicked are left without an heir! how often their destruction comes upon them! God distributes sorrows in his anger.

18 They are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away.

19 God reserves man's iniquity for his children; he pays it back to him, and he shall know it.

20 His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

21 For what pleasure has he in his house after him, when a portion of his years shall be reserved for his posterity?

22 Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing it is he who judges the proud?

23 One dies in his full strength, sound of body, being wholly confident, and at ease.

24 His body is full of fat, and his bones are filled with marrow.

25 And another dies in the bitterness of his soul, never having tasted prosperity.

26 They shall lie down in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.