| Chapter 21 |
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Then Job answered, |
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"Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation. |
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Allow me, and I also will speak; After I have spoken, mock on. |
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As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn`t I be impatient? |
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Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth. |
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When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh. |
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"Why do the wicked live, Become old, yes, and grow mighty in power? |
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Their child is established with them in their sight, Their offspring before their eyes. |
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Their houses are safe from fear, Neither is the rod of God upon them. |
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Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don`t miscarry. |
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They send forth their little ones like a flock. Their children dance. |
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They sing to the tambourine and harp, And rejoice at the sound of the pipe. |
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They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol. |
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They tell God, `Depart from us, For we don`t want to know about your ways. |
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What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?` |
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Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand: The counsel of the wicked is far from me. |
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"How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes on them? That God distributes sorrows in his anger? |
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That they are as stubble before the wind, As chaff that the storm carries away? |
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You say, `God lays up his iniquity for his children.` Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it. |
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Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. |
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For what does he care for his house after him, When the number of his months is cut off? |
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"Shall any teach God knowledge, Seeing he judges those who are high? |
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One dies in his full strength, Being wholly at ease and quiet. |
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His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened. |
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Another dies in bitterness of soul, And never tastes of good. |
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They lie down alike in the dust, The worm covers them. |
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"Behold, I know your thoughts, The devices with which you would wrong me. |
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For you say, `Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?` |
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Haven`t you asked wayfaring men? Don`t you know their evidences, |
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That the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity? That they are led forth to the day of wrath? |
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Who shall declare his way to his face? Who shall repay him what he has done? |
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Yet shall he be borne to the grave, Men shall keep watch over the tomb. |
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The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, As there were innumerable before him. |
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So how can you comfort me with nonsense, Seeing that in your answers there remains only falsehood?" |