Job 21 – read and compare multiple versions
Job 21
[1] Then Job answered,
[2] “Listen diligently to my speech.
Let this be your consolation.
[3] Allow me, and I also will speak.
After I have spoken, mock on.
[4] As for me, is my complaint to man?
Why shouldn’t I be impatient?
[5] Look at me, and be astonished.
Lay your hand on your mouth.
[6] When I remember, I am troubled.
Horror takes hold of my flesh. [7] “Why do the wicked live,
become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?
[8] Their child is established with them in their sight,
their offspring before their eyes.
[9] Their houses are safe from fear,
neither is the rod of God upon them.
[10] Their bulls breed without fail.
Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.
[11] They send out their little ones like a flock.
Their children dance.
[12] They sing to the tambourine and harp,
and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
[13] They spend their days in prosperity.
In an instant they go down to Sheol.
[14] They tell God, ‘Depart from us,
for we don’t want to know about your ways.
[15] What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’
[16] Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me. [17] “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out,
that their calamity comes on them,
that God distributes sorrows in his anger?
[18] How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind,
as chaff that the storm carries away?
[19] You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’
Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.
[20] Let his own eyes see his destruction.
Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
[21] For what does he care for his house after him,
when the number of his months is cut off? [22] “Shall any teach God knowledge,
since he judges those who are high?
[23] One dies in his full strength,
being wholly at ease and quiet.
[24] His pails are full of milk.
The marrow of his bones is moistened.
[25] Another dies in bitterness of soul,
and never tastes of good.
[26] They lie down alike in the dust.
The worm covers them. [27] “Behold, I know your thoughts,
the plans with which you would wrong me.
[28] For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?
Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
[29] Haven’t you asked wayfaring men?
Don’t you know their evidences,
[30] that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity,
that they are led out to the day of wrath?
[31] Who will declare his way to his face?
Who will repay him what he has done?
[32] Yet he will be borne to the grave.
Men will keep watch over the tomb.
[33] The clods of the valley will be sweet to him.
All men will draw after him,
as there were innumerable before him.
[34] So how can you comfort me with nonsense,
because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”
[2] “Listen diligently to my speech.
Let this be your consolation.
[3] Allow me, and I also will speak.
After I have spoken, mock on.
[4] As for me, is my complaint to man?
Why shouldn’t I be impatient?
[5] Look at me, and be astonished.
Lay your hand on your mouth.
[6] When I remember, I am troubled.
Horror takes hold of my flesh. [7] “Why do the wicked live,
become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?
[8] Their child is established with them in their sight,
their offspring before their eyes.
[9] Their houses are safe from fear,
neither is the rod of God upon them.
[10] Their bulls breed without fail.
Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.
[11] They send out their little ones like a flock.
Their children dance.
[12] They sing to the tambourine and harp,
and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
[13] They spend their days in prosperity.
In an instant they go down to Sheol.
[14] They tell God, ‘Depart from us,
for we don’t want to know about your ways.
[15] What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’
[16] Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me. [17] “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out,
that their calamity comes on them,
that God distributes sorrows in his anger?
[18] How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind,
as chaff that the storm carries away?
[19] You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’
Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.
[20] Let his own eyes see his destruction.
Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
[21] For what does he care for his house after him,
when the number of his months is cut off? [22] “Shall any teach God knowledge,
since he judges those who are high?
[23] One dies in his full strength,
being wholly at ease and quiet.
[24] His pails are full of milk.
The marrow of his bones is moistened.
[25] Another dies in bitterness of soul,
and never tastes of good.
[26] They lie down alike in the dust.
The worm covers them. [27] “Behold, I know your thoughts,
the plans with which you would wrong me.
[28] For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?
Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
[29] Haven’t you asked wayfaring men?
Don’t you know their evidences,
[30] that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity,
that they are led out to the day of wrath?
[31] Who will declare his way to his face?
Who will repay him what he has done?
[32] Yet he will be borne to the grave.
Men will keep watch over the tomb.
[33] The clods of the valley will be sweet to him.
All men will draw after him,
as there were innumerable before him.
[34] So how can you comfort me with nonsense,
because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”