| 章 |
| 21:1 |
Then Job replied:
|
| 21:2 |
"Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you give me.
|
| 21:3 |
Bear with me while I speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.
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| 21:4 |
"Is my complaint directed to man? Why should I not be impatient?
|
| 21:5 |
Look at me and be astonished; clap your hand over your mouth.
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| 21:6 |
When I think about this, I am terrified; trembling seizes my body.
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| 21:7 |
Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?
|
| 21:8 |
They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes.
|
| 21:9 |
Their homes are safe and free from fear; the rod of God is not upon them.
|
| 21:10 |
Their bulls never fail to breed; their cows calve and do not miscarry.
|
| 21:11 |
They send forth their children as a flock; their little ones dance about.
|
| 21:12 |
They sing to the music of tambourine and harp; they make merry to the sound of the flute.
|
| 21:13 |
They spend their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace.
|
| 21:14 |
Yet they say to God, `Leave us alone! We have no desire to know your ways.
|
| 21:15 |
Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?
|
| 21:16 |
'But their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stand aloof from the counsel of the wicked.
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| 21:17 |
"Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out? How often does calamity come upon them, the fate God allots in his anger?
|
| 21:18 |
How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a gale?
|
| 21:19 |
It is said, `God stores up a man's punishment for his sons. 'Let him repay the man himself, so that he will know it!
|
| 21:20 |
Let his own eyes see his destruction; let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
|
| 21:21 |
For what does he care about the family he leaves behind when his allotted months come to an end?
|
| 21:22 |
"Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since he judges even the highest?
|
| 21:23 |
One man dies in full vigor, completely secure and at ease,
|
| 21:24 |
his body well nourished, his bones rich with marrow.
|
| 21:25 |
Another man dies in bitterness of soul, never having enjoyed anything good.
|
| 21:26 |
Side by side they lie in the dust, and worms cover them both.
|
| 21:27 |
"I know full well what you are thinking, the schemes by which you would wrong me.
|
| 21:28 |
You say, `Where now is the great man's house, the tents where wicked men lived?
|
| 21:29 |
'Have you never questioned those who travel? Have you paid no regard to their accounts--
|
| 21:30 |
that the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, that he is delivered from the day of wrath?
|
| 21:31 |
Who denounces his conduct to his face? Who repays him for what he has done?
|
| 21:32 |
He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.
|
| 21:33 |
The soil in the valley is sweet to him; all men follow after him, and a countless throng goes before him.
|
| 21:34 |
"So how can you console me with your nonsense? Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!"
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