Job 21:1-34 GW

[1] Then Job replied to his friends, [2] "Listen carefully to my words, and let that be the comfort you offer me. [3] Bear with me while I speak. Then after I've spoken, you may go on mocking. [4] Am I complaining about a person? Why shouldn't I be impatient? [5] Look at me, and be shocked, and put your hand over your mouth. [6] When I remember it, I'm terrified, and shuddering seizes my body. [7] "Why do the wicked go on living, grow old, and even become more powerful? [8] They see their children firmly established with them, and they get to see their descendants. [9] Their homes are free from fear, and God doesn't use his rod on them. [10] Their bulls are fertile when they breed. Their cows give birth to calves and never miscarry. [11] They send their little children out to play like a flock of lambs, and their children dance around. [12] They sing with the tambourine and lyre, and they are happy with the music of the flute. [13] They spend their days in happiness, and they go peacefully to the grave. [14] But they say to God, 'Leave us alone. We don't want to know your ways. [15] Who is the Almighty that we should serve him? What do we gain if we pray to him?' [16] Anyhow, isn't their happiness in their own power? (The plan of the wicked is foreign to my way of thinking.) [17] "How often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out? How often does disaster happen to them? How often does an angry God give them pain? [18] How often are they like straw in the wind or like husks that the storm sweeps away? [19] "You say, 'God saves a person's punishment for his children.' God should pay back that person so that he would know that it is a punishment. [20] His eyes should see his own ruin. He should drink from the wrath of the Almighty. [21] How can he be interested in his family after he's gone, when the number of his months is cut short? [22] "Can anyone teach God knowledge? Can anyone judge the Most High? [23] One person dies in his prime and feels altogether happy and contented. [24] His stomach is full of milk, and his bones are strong and healthy. [25] Another person, never having tasted happiness, dies with a bitter soul. [26] Together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them. [27] "You see, I know your thoughts and the schemes you plot against me [28] because you ask, 'Where is the house of the influential person? Where is the tent where wicked people live?' [29] Haven't you asked travelers? But you didn't pay attention to their directions. [30] On the day of disaster the wicked person is spared. On the day of God's anger he is rescued. [31] Who will tell him to his face how he lived? Who will pay him back for what he did? [32] He is carried to the cemetery, and his grave is guarded. [33] The soil in the creekbed is sweet to him. Everyone follows him. Countless others went before him. [34] How can you comfort me with this nonsense when your answers continue to betray me?"