Chapter 21

  And Job answereth and saith: --  

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  Hear ye diligently my word, And this is your consolation.  

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  Bear with me, and I speak, And after my speaking -- ye may deride.  

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  I -- to man [is] my complaint? and if [so], wherefore May not my temper become short?  

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  Turn unto me, and be astonished, And put hand to mouth.  

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  Yea, if I have remembered, then I have been troubled. And my flesh hath taken fright.  

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  Wherefore do the wicked live? They have become old, Yea, they have been mighty in wealth.  

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  Their seed is established, Before their face with them, And their offspring before their eyes.  

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  Their houses [are] peace without fear, Nor [is] a rod of God upon them.  

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  His bullock hath eaten corn, and doth not loath. His cow bringeth forth safely, And doth not miscarry.  

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  They send forth as a flock their sucklings, And their children skip,  

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  They lift [themselves] up at timbrel and harp, And rejoice at the sound of an organ.  

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  They wear out in good their days, And in a moment [to] Sheol go down.  

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  And they say to God, 'Turn aside from us, And the knowledge of Thy ways We have not desired.  

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  What [is] the Mighty One that we serve Him? And what do we profit when we meet with Him?'  

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  Lo, not in their hand [is] their good, (The counsel of the wicked Hath been far from me.)  

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  How oft is the lamp of the wicked extinguished, And come on them doth their calamity? Pangs He apportioneth in His anger.  

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  They are as straw before wind, And as chaff a hurricane hath stolen away,  

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  God layeth up for his sons his sorrow, He giveth recompense unto him -- and he knoweth.  

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  His own eyes see his destruction, And of the wrath of the Mighty he drinketh.  

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  For what [is] his delight in his house after him, And the number of his months cut off?  

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  To God doth [one] teach knowledge, And He the high doth judge?  

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  This [one] dieth in his perfect strength, Wholly at ease and quiet.  

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  His breasts have been full of milk, And marrow his bones doth moisten.  

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  And this [one] dieth with a bitter soul, And have not eaten with gladness.  

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  Together -- on the dust they lie down, And the worm doth cover them over.  

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  Lo, I have known your thoughts, And the devices against me ye do wrongfully.  

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  For ye say, 'Where [is] the house of the noble? And where the tent -- The tabernacles of the wicked?'  

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  Have ye not asked those passing by the way? And their signs do ye not know?  

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  That to a day of calamity is the wicked spared. To a day of wrath they are brought.  

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  Who doth declare to his face his way? And [for] that which he hath done, Who doth give recompence to him?  

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  And he -- to the graves he is brought. And over the heap a watch is kept.  

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  Sweet to him have been the clods of the valley, And after him every man he draweth, And before him there is no numbering.  

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  And how do ye comfort me [with] vanity, And in your answers hath been left trespass?  

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