Job 21
21
Job
1-2Listen to what I am saying;
that is all the comfort I ask from you.
3Give me a chance to speak and then,
when I am through, sneer if you like.
4My quarrel is not with mortals;
I have good reason to be impatient.
5Look at me. Isn't that enough
to make you stare in shocked silence?
6When I think of what has happened to me,
I am stunned, and I tremble and shake.
7Why does God let evil people live,
let them grow old and prosper?
8They have children and grandchildren,
and live to watch them all grow up.
9God does not bring disaster on their homes;
they never have to live in terror.
10Yes, all their cattle breed
and give birth without trouble.
11Their children run and play like lambs
12and dance to the music of harps and flutes.
13They live out their lives in peace
and quietly die without suffering.
14The wicked tell God to leave them alone;
they don't want to know his will for their lives.
15They think there is no need to serve God
nor any advantage in praying to him.
16They claim they succeed by their own strength,
but their way of thinking I can't accept.
17Was a wicked person's light ever put out?
Did one of them ever meet with disaster?
Did God ever punish the wicked in anger
18and blow them away like straw in the wind,
or like dust carried away in a storm?
19You claim God punishes a child for the sins of his father.
No! Let God punish the sinners themselves;
let him show that he does it because of their sins.
20Let sinners bear their own punishment;
let them feel the wrath of Almighty God.
21When our lives are over,
do we really care whether our children are happy?
22Can anyone teach God,
who judges even those in high places?
23-24Some people stay healthy till the day they die;
they die happy and at ease,
their bodies well nourished.
25Others have no happiness at all;
they live and die with bitter hearts.
26But all alike die and are buried;
they all are covered with worms.
27I know what spiteful thoughts you have.
28You ask, “Where are the houses of great people now,
those who practised evil?”
29Haven't you talked with people who travel?
Don't you know the reports they bring back?
30On the day God is angry and punishes,
it is the wicked who are always spared.
31There is no one to accuse the wicked
or pay them back for all they have done.
32When they are carried to the graveyard,
to their well-guarded tombs,
33thousands join the funeral procession,
and even the earth lies gently on their bodies.
34And you! You try to comfort me with nonsense!
Every answer you give is a lie!
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Job 21: GNBDC
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Job 21
21
Job
1Then Job replied:
2“Listen carefully to my words;
let this be the consolation you give me.
3Bear with me while I speak,
and after I have spoken, mock on.
4“Is my complaint directed to a human being?
Why should I not be impatient?
5Look at me and be appalled;
clap your hand over your mouth.
6When I think about this, I am terrified;
trembling seizes my body.
7Why do the wicked live on,
growing old and increasing in power?
8They see their children established around them,
their offspring before their eyes.
9Their homes are safe and free from fear;
the rod of God is not on them.
10Their bulls never fail to breed;
their cows calve and do not miscarry.
11They send forth their children as a flock;
their little ones dance about.
12They sing to the music of timbrel and lyre;
they make merry to the sound of the pipe.
13They spend their years in prosperity
and go down to the grave in peace.#21:13 Or in an instant
14Yet they say to God, ‘Leave us alone!
We have no desire to know your ways.
15Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
What would we gain by praying to him?’
16But their prosperity is not in their own hands,
so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked.
17“Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?
How often does calamity come upon them,
the fate God allots in his anger?
18How often are they like straw before the wind,
like chaff swept away by a gale?
19It is said, ‘God stores up the punishment of the wicked for their children.’
Let him repay the wicked, so that they themselves will experience it!
20Let their own eyes see their destruction;
let them drink the cup of the wrath of the Almighty.
21For what do they care about the families they leave behind
when their allotted months come to an end?
22“Can anyone teach knowledge to God,
since he judges even the highest?
23One person dies in full vigor,
completely secure and at ease,
24well nourished in body,#21:24 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
bones rich with marrow.
25Another dies in bitterness of soul,
never having enjoyed anything good.
26Side by side they lie in the dust,
and worms cover them both.
27“I know full well what you are thinking,
the schemes by which you would wrong me.
28You say, ‘Where now is the house of the great,
the tents where the wicked lived?’
29Have you never questioned those who travel?
Have you paid no regard to their accounts—
30that the wicked are spared from the day of calamity,
that they are delivered from#21:30 Or wicked are reserved for the day of calamity, / that they are brought forth to the day of wrath?
31Who denounces their conduct to their face?
Who repays them for what they have done?
32They are carried to the grave,
and watch is kept over their tombs.
33The soil in the valley is sweet to them;
everyone follows after them,
and a countless throng goes#21:33 Or them, / as a countless throng went before them.
34“So how can you console me with your nonsense?
Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!”
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