Job 21 :: New King James Version (NKJV)

Job’s Discourse on the Wicked

Job Complains About the Prosperity of the Wicked

Job 21:1

Job 21:1Then Job answered and said:

Job 21:2

Job 21:2“Listen carefully to my speech,
And let this be your consolation.

Job 21:3

Job 21:3Bear with me that I may speak,
And after I have spoken, keep mocking.

Job 21:4

Job 21:4“As for me, is my complaint against man?
And if it were, why should I not be impatient?

Job 21:5

Job 21:5Look at me and be astonished;
Put your hand over your mouth.

Job 21:6

Job 21:6Even when I remember I am terrified,
And trembling takes hold of my flesh.

Job 21:7

Job 21:7Why do the wicked live and become old,
Yes, become mighty in power?

Job 21:8

Job 21:8Their descendants are established with them in their sight,
And their offspring before their eyes.

Job 21:9

Job 21:9Their houses are safe from fear,
Neither is the rod of God upon them.

Job 21:10

Job 21:10Their bull breeds without failure;
Their cow calves without miscarriage.

Job 21:11

Job 21:11They send forth their little ones like a flock,
And their children dance.

Job 21:12

Job 21:12They sing to the tambourine and harp,
And rejoice to the sound of the flute.

Job 21:13

Job 21:13They spend their days in wealth,
And in a moment go down to the grave.[fn]

Job 21:14

Job 21:14Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us,
For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.

Job 21:15

Job 21:15Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?
And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?’

Job 21:16

Job 21:16Indeed their prosperity is not in their hand;
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

Job 21:17

Job 21:17“How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
How often does their destruction come upon them,
The sorrows God distributes in His anger?

Job 21:18

Job 21:18They are like straw before the wind,
And like chaff that a storm carries away.

Job 21:19

Job 21:19They say, ‘God lays up one’s[fn] iniquity for his children’;
Let Him recompense him, that he may know it.

Job 21:20

Job 21:20Let his eyes see his destruction,
And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

Job 21:21

Job 21:21For what does he care about his household after him,
When the number of his months is cut in half?

Job 21:22

Job 21:22“Can anyone teach God knowledge,
Since He judges those on high?

Job 21:23

Job 21:23One dies in his full strength,
Being wholly at ease and secure;

Job 21:24

Job 21:24His pails[fn] are full of milk,
And the marrow of his bones is moist.

Job 21:25

Job 21:25Another man dies in the bitterness of his soul,
Never having eaten with pleasure.

Job 21:26

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

Job 21:27

Job 21:27“Look, I know your thoughts,
And the schemes with which you would wrong me.

Job 21:28

Job 21:28For you say,
‘Where is the house of the prince?
And where is the tent,[fn]
The dwelling place of the wicked?’

Job 21:29

Job 21:29Have you not asked those who travel the road?
And do you not know their signs?

Job 21:30

Job 21:30For the wicked are reserved for the day of doom;
They shall be brought out on the day of wrath.

Job 21:31

Job 21:31Who condemns his way to his face?
And who repays him for what he has done?

Job 21:32

Job 21:32Yet he shall be brought to the grave,
And a vigil kept over the tomb.

Job 21:33

Job 21:33The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him;
Everyone shall follow him,
As countless have gone before him.

Job 21:34

Job 21:34How then can you comfort me with empty words,
Since falsehood remains in your answers?”

See the NKJV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NKJV Footnotes

(21:13)

Or Sheol

(21:19)

Literally his

(21:24)

Septuagint and Vulgate read bowels; Syriac reads sides; Targum reads breasts.

(21:28)

Vulgate omits the tent.

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