Job 21:1-34 BSB

[1] Then Job answered: [2] “Listen carefully to my words; let this be your consolation to me. [3] Bear with me while I speak; then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking. [4] Is my complaint against a man? Then why should I not be impatient? [5] Look at me and be appalled; put your hand over your mouth. [6] When I remember, terror takes hold, and my body trembles in horror. [7] Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power? [8] Their descendants are established around them, and their offspring before their eyes. [9] Their homes are safe from fear; no rod of punishment from God is upon them. [10] Their bulls breed without fail; their cows bear calves and do not miscarry. [11] They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about, [12] singing to the tambourine and lyre and making merry at the sound of the flute. [13] They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace. [14] Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways. [15] Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’ [16] Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked. [17] How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come upon them? Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction? [18] Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm? [19] It is said that God lays up one’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the man himself, so he will know it. [20] Let his eyes see his own destruction; let him drink for himself the wrath of the Almighty. [21] For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months has run out? [22] Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since He judges those on high? [23] One man dies full of vigor, completely secure and at ease. [24] His body is well nourished, and his bones are rich with marrow. [25] Yet another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, having never tasted prosperity. [26] But together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both. [27] Behold, I know your thoughts full well, the schemes by which you would wrong me. [28] For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’ [29] Have you never asked those who travel the roads? Do you not accept their reports? [30] Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath. [31] Who denounces his behavior to his face? Who repays him for what he has done? [32] He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb. [33] The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number. [34] So how can you comfort me with empty words? For your answers remain full of falsehood.”