Job 21 :: New English Translation (NET)

Job Says God Will Deal with the Wicked

Job 21:1

Job 21:1Then Job answered:

Job 21:2

Job 21:2"Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you offer me.

Job 21:3

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

Job 21:4

Job 21:4Is my complaint against a man? If so, why should I not be impatient?

Job 21:5

Job 21:5Look at me and be appalled; put your hands over your mouths.

Job 21:6

Job 21:6For, when I think about this, I am terrified and my body feels a shudder.

Job 21:7

Job 21:7"Why do the wicked go on living, grow old, even increase in power?

Job 21:8

Job 21:8Their children are firmly established in their presence, their offspring before their eyes.

Job 21:9

Job 21:9Their houses are safe and without fear; and no rod of punishment from God is upon them.

Job 21:10

Job 21:10Their bulls breed without fail; their cows calve and do not miscarry.

Job 21:11

Job 21:11They allow their children to run like a flock; their little ones dance about.

Job 21:12

Job 21:12They sing to the accompaniment of tambourine and harp, and make merry to the sound of the flute.

Job 21:13

Job 21:13They live out their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace.

Job 21:14

Job 21:14So they say to God, 'Turn away from us! We do not want to know your ways.

Job 21:15

Job 21:15Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain if we were to pray to him?'

Job 21:16

Job 21:16But their prosperity is not their own doing. The counsel of the wicked is far from me!

Job 21:17

Job 21:17"How often is the lamp of the wicked extinguished? How often does their misfortune come upon them? How often does God apportion pain to them in his anger?

Job 21:18

Job 21:18How often are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff swept away by a whirlwind?

Job 21:19

Job 21:19You may say, 'God stores up a man's punishment for his children!' Instead let him repay the man himself so that he may know it!

Job 21:20

Job 21:20Let his own eyes see his destruction; let him drink of the anger of the Almighty.

Job 21:21

Job 21:21For what is his interest in his home after his death, when the number of his months has been broken off?

Job 21:22

Job 21:22Can anyone teach God knowledge, since he judges those that are on high?

Job 21:23

Job 21:23"One man dies in his full vigor, completely secure and prosperous,

Job 21:24

Job 21:24his body well nourished, and the marrow of his bones moist.

Job 21:25

Job 21:25And another man dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted anything good.

Job 21:26

Job 21:26Together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover over them both.

Job 21:27

Job 21:27"Yes, I know what you are thinking, the schemes by which you would wrong me.

Job 21:28

Job 21:28For you say, 'Where now is the nobleman's house, and where are the tents in which the wicked lived?'

Job 21:29

Job 21:29Have you never questioned those who travel the roads? Do you not recognize their accounts -

Job 21:30

Job 21:30that the evil man is spared from the day of his misfortune, that he is delivered from the day of God's wrath?

Job 21:31

Job 21:31No one denounces his conduct to his face; no one repays him for what he has done.

Job 21:32

Job 21:32And when he is carried to the tombs, and watch is kept over the funeral mound,

Job 21:33

Job 21:33The clods of the torrent valley are sweet to him; behind him everybody follows in procession, and before him goes a countless throng.

Job 21:34

Job 21:34So how can you console me with your futile words? Nothing is left of your answers but deception!"

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Job 21 :: New English Translation (NET)

Job Says God Will Deal with the Wicked

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