Chapter 21

  And Job answered and said,  

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  Hear attentively my speech, and let this replace your consolations.  

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  Suffer me and I will speak; and after I have spoken, mock on!  

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  As for me, is my complaint to a man? or wherefore should not my spirit be impatient?  

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  Mark me, and be astonished, and lay the hand upon the mouth.  

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  Even when I think [thereon], I am affrighted, and trembling taketh hold of my flesh.  

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  Wherefore do the wicked live, grow old, yea, become mighty in power?  

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  Their seed is established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes.  

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

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  Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.  

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  They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.  

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  They shout to the tambour and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.  

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  They spend their days in prosperity, and in a moment go down to Sheol.  

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  And they say unto ùGod, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways!  

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  What is the Almighty that we should serve him? and what are we profited if we pray unto him?  

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  Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked be far from me!  

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  How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, and cometh their calamity upon them? Doth he distribute sorrows [to them] in his anger?  

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  Do they become as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away?  

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  +God layeth up [the punishment of] his iniquity for his children; he rewardeth him, and he shall know [it]:  

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

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  For what pleasure should he have in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?  

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  Can any teach ùGod knowledge? And he it is that judgeth those that are high.  

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  One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet;  

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  His sides are full of fat, and the marrow of his bones is moistened;  

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  And another dieth in bitterness of soul, and hath not tasted good:  

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  Together they lie down in the dust, and the worms cover them.  

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  Lo, I know your thoughts, and the devices ye wrongfully imagine against me.  

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  For ye say, Where is the house of the noble? and where the tent of the dwellings of the wicked?  

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  Have ye not asked the wayfarers? and do ye not regard their tokens:  

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  That the wicked is reserved for the day of calamity? They are led forth to the day of wrath.  

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  Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?  

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  Yet is he carried to the graves, and watch is kept over the tomb.  

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  The clods of the valley are sweet unto him; and every man followeth suit after him, as there were innumerable before him.  

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  How then comfort ye me in vain? Your answers remain perfidious.  

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