Chapter 21

  Then Job answered, and said:  

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  Hear, I beseech you, my words, and do penance.  

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  Suffer me, and I will speak, and after, if you please, laugh at my words.  

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  Is my debate against man, that I should not have just reason to be troubled?  

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  Hearken to me and be astonished, and lay your finger on your mouth.  

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  As for me, when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.  

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  Why then do the wicked live, are they advanced, and strengthened with riches?  

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  Their seed continueth before them, a multitude of kinsmen, and of children's children in their sight.  

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  Their houses are secure and peaceable, and the rod of God is not upon them.  

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  Their cattle have conceived, and failed not: their cow has calved, and is not deprived of her fruit.  

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  Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children dance and play.  

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  They take the timbrel, and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.  

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  They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell.  

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  Who have said to God: Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.  

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  Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what doth it profit us if we pray to him?  

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  Yet because their good things are not in their hand, may the counsel of the wicked be far from me.  

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  How often shall the lamp of the wicked be put out, and a deluge come upon them, and he shall distribute the sorrows of his wrath?  

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  They shall be as chaff before the face of the wind, and as ashes which the whirlwind scattereth.  

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  God shall lay up the sorrow of the father for his children: and when he shall repay, then shall he know.  

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

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  For what is it to him what befalleth his house after him: and if the number of his months be diminished by one half?  

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  Shall any one teach God knowledge, who judgeth those that are high?  

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  One man dieth strong, and hale, rich and happy.  

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  His bowels are full of fat, and his bones are moistened with marrow.  

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  But another dieth in bitterness of soul without any riches:  

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  And yet they shall sleep together in the dust, and worms shall cover them.  

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  Surely I know your thoughts, and your unjust judgments against me.  

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  For you say: Where is the house of the prince ? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?  

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  Ask any one of them that go by the way, and you shall perceive that he knoweth these same things.  

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  Because the wicked man is reserved to the day of destruction, and he shall be brought to the day of wrath.  

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

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  He shall be brought to the graves, and shall watch in the heap of the dead.  

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  He hath been acceptable to the gravel of Cocytus, and he shall draw every man after him, and there are innumerable before him.  

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  How then do ye comfort me in vain, whereas your answer is shewn to be repugnant to truth ?  

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