Previous Chapter Full Page Full Page Next Chapter

Job 21 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Job Replies: The Wicked Do Prosper

Job 21:1

Job 21:1Then Job answered and said:

Job 21:2

Job 21:2“Keep listening to my words,
and let this be your comfort.

Job 21:3

Job 21:3Bear with me, and I will speak,
and after I have spoken, mock on.

Job 21:4

Job 21:4As for me, is my complaint against man?
Why should I not be impatient?

Job 21:5

Job 21:5Look at me and be appalled,
and lay your hand over your mouth.

Job 21:6

Job 21:6When I remember, I am dismayed,
and shuddering seizes my flesh.

Job 21:7

Job 21:7Why do the wicked live,
reach old age, and grow mighty in power?

Job 21:8

Job 21:8Their offspring are established in their presence,
and their descendants before their eyes.

Job 21:9

Job 21:9Their houses are safe from fear,
and no rod of God is upon them.

Job 21:10

Job 21:10Their bull breeds without fail;
their cow calves and does not miscarry.

Job 21:11

Job 21:11They send out their little boys like a flock,
and their children dance.

Job 21:12

Job 21:12They sing to the tambourine and the lyre
and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

Job 21:13

Job 21:13They spend their days in prosperity,
and in peace they go down to Sheol.

Job 21:14

Job 21:14They say to God, ‘Depart from us!
We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.

Job 21:15

Job 21:15What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’

Job 21:16

Job 21:16Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

Job 21:17

Job 21:17“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?
That their calamity comes upon them?
That God[fn] distributes pains in his anger?

Job 21:18

Job 21:18That they are like straw before the wind,
and like chaff that the storm carries away?

Job 21:19

Job 21:19You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’
Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.

Job 21:20

Job 21:20Let their own eyes see their destruction,
and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

Job 21:21

Job 21:21For what do they care for their houses after them,
when the number of their months is cut off?

Job 21:22

Job 21:22Will any teach God knowledge,
seeing that he judges those who are on high?

Job 21:23

Job 21:23One dies in his full vigor,
being wholly at ease and secure,

Job 21:24

Job 21:24his pails[fn] full of milk
and the marrow of his bones moist.

Job 21:25

Job 21:25Another dies in bitterness of soul,
never having tasted of prosperity.

Job 21:26

Job 21:26They lie down alike in the dust,
and the worms cover them.

Job 21:27

Job 21:27“Behold, I know your thoughts
and your schemes to wrong me.

Job 21:28

Job 21:28For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?
Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’

Job 21:29

Job 21:29Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
and do you not accept their testimony

Job 21:30

Job 21:30that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity,
that he is rescued in the day of wrath?

Job 21:31

Job 21:31Who declares his way to his face,
and who repays him for what he has done?

Job 21:32

Job 21:32When he is carried to the grave,
watch is kept over his tomb.

Job 21:33

Job 21:33The clods of the valley are sweet to him;
all mankind follows after him,
and those who go before him are innumerable.

Job 21:34

Job 21:34How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”
See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
ESV Footnotes
Hebrew he
The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain
Translation Copyright Logo

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

Job Chapter 21 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation New International Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras

Did You Know BLB Is User Supported?

Your partnership makes all we do possible. Would you prayerfully consider a gift of support today?

Remind Me
Dismiss