Job 21

Job Replies: The Wicked Do Prosper

1Then Job answered and said:

2 ^a“Keep listening to my words,
and let this be your comfort.
3Bear with me, and I will speak,
and after I have spoken, ^bmock on.
4As for me, is my ^ccomplaint against man?
Why should I not be impatient?
5Look at me and be appalled,
and ^dlay your hand over your mouth.
6When I remember, I am dismayed,
and shuddering seizes my flesh.
7 ^eWhy do the wicked live,
reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
8Their ^foffspring are established in their presence,
and their descendants before their eyes.
9Their houses are ^gsafe from fear,
and ^hno rod of God is upon them.
10Their bull breeds without fail;
their cow calves and ⁱdoes not miscarry.
11They send out their ^jlittle boys like a flock,
and their children dance.
12They sing to ^kthe tambourine and ^lthe lyre
and rejoice to the sound of ^mthe pipe.
13They ⁿspend their days in prosperity,
and in ^opeace they go down to ^pSheol.
14They say to God, ^q‘Depart from us!
We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.
15 ^rWhat is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
And what ^sprofit do we get if we pray to him?’
16Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?
^tThe counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17 “How often is it that ^uthe lamp of the wicked is put out?
That their calamity comes upon them?
That God ▼

▼Hebrew he

distributes pains in his anger?
18That they are like ^wstraw before the wind,
and like ^xchaff that the storm carries away?
19You say, ‘God ^ystores up their iniquity for their ^zchildren.’
Let him pay it out to them, that they may ^aaknow it.
20Let their own eyes see their destruction,
and let them ^abdrink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21For what do they care for their houses after them,
when ^acthe number of their months is cut off?
22 ^adWill any teach God knowledge,
seeing that he ^aejudges those who are on high?
23One dies in his full vigor,
being wholly at ease and secure,
24his pails ▼

▼The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain

full of milk
and ^agthe marrow of his bones moist.
25Another dies in ^ahbitterness of soul,
never having tasted of prosperity.
26They ^ailie down alike in the dust,
and ^ajthe worms cover them.
27 “Behold, I know your thoughts
and your schemes to wrong me.
28For you say, ^ak‘Where is the house of the prince?
Where is ^althe tent in which the wicked lived?’
29Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
and do you not accept their testimony
30that ^amthe evil man is spared in the day of calamity,
that he is rescued in the day of wrath?
31Who declares his way ^anto his face,
and who ^aorepays him for what he has done?
32When he is ^apcarried to the grave,
watch is kept over his tomb.
33 ^aqThe clods of the valley are sweet to him;
^arall mankind follows after him,
and those who go before him are innumerable.
34How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”

Job 24

1“Why are ^asnot times of judgment ^atkept by the Almighty,
and why do those who know him never see his ^audays?
2Some move ^avlandmarks;
they seize flocks and pasture them.
3They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;
they ^awtake the widow’s ox for a pledge.
4They ^axthrust the poor off the road;
the poor of the earth ^ayall hide themselves.
5Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert
the poor ▼

▼Hebrew they

^bago out to their toil, ^bbseeking game;
the wasteland yields food for their children.
6They gather their ▼

▼Hebrew his

fodder in the field,
and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man.
7They ^bdlie all night naked, without clothing,
and have no covering in the cold.
8They are wet with the rain of the mountains
and ^becling to the rock for lack of shelter.
9(There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast,
and they take a pledge against the poor.)
10They go about naked, without clothing;
hungry, they ^bfcarry the sheaves;
11among the olive rows of the wicked ▼

▼Hebrew their olive rows

they make oil;
they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.
12From out of the city the dying groan,
and the soul of ^bhthe wounded cries for help;
yet God charges no one with ^biwrong.
13 “There are those who rebel ^bjagainst the light,
who are not acquainted with its ways,
and do not stay in its paths.
14The murderer rises before it is light,
that he ^bkmay kill the poor and needy,
and in the night he is like a thief.
15The eye of the adulterer also waits for ^blthe twilight,
saying, ‘No ^bmeye will see me’;
and he veils his face.
16In the dark they ^bndig through houses;
by day they shut themselves up;
they do not know the light.
17For ^bodeep darkness is morning to all of them;
for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.
18 “You say, ^bp‘Swift are they on the face of the waters;
their portion is cursed in the land;
no treader turns toward their vineyards.
19Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters;
so does ^bqSheol those who have sinned.
20The womb forgets them;
the worm finds them sweet;
they are ^brno longer remembered,
so wickedness is broken like ^bsa tree.’
21 “They wrong the barren, childless woman,
and do no good to the widow.
22Yet God ▼

▼Hebrew he

prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;
they rise up when they despair of life.
23He gives them security, and they are supported,
and his ^bueyes are upon their ways.
24They are exalted ^bva little while, and then ^bware gone;
they are brought low and gathered up like all others;
they are ^bxcut off like the heads of grain.
25If it is ^bynot so, who will prove me a liar
and show that there is nothing in what I say?”