GodsWord - Job - 21

21:1  Then Job replied to his friends,

21:2  "Listen carefully to my words, and let that be the comfort you offer me.

21:3  Bear with me while I speak. Then after I've spoken, you may go on mocking.

21:4  Am I complaining about a person? Why shouldn't I be impatient?

21:5  Look at me, and be shocked, and put your hand over your mouth.

21:6  When I remember it, I'm terrified, and shuddering seizes my body.

21:7  "Why do the wicked go on living, grow old, and even become more powerful?

21:8  They see their children firmly established with them, and they get to see their descendants.

21:9  Their homes are free from fear, and God doesn't use his rod on them.

21:10  Their bulls are fertile when they breed. Their cows give birth to calves and never miscarry.

21:11  They send their little children out to play like a flock of lambs, and their children dance around.

21:12  They sing with the tambourine and lyre, and they are happy with the music of the flute.

21:13  They spend their days in happiness, and they go peacefully to the grave.

21:14  But they say to God, 'Leave us alone. We don't want to know your ways.

21:15  Who is the Almighty that we should serve him? What do we gain if we pray to him?'

21:16  Anyhow, isn't their happiness in their own power? (The plan of the wicked is foreign to my way of thinking.)

21:17  "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?

21:18  How often are they like straw in the wind or like husks that the storm sweeps away?

21:19  "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.

21:20  His eyes should see his own ruin. He should drink from the wrath of the Almighty.

21:21  How can he be interested in his family after he's gone, when the number of his months is cut short?

21:22  "Can anyone teach God knowledge? Can anyone judge the Most High?

21:23  One person dies in his prime and feels altogether happy and contented.

21:24  His stomach is full of milk, and his bones are strong and healthy.

21:25  Another person, never having tasted happiness, dies with a bitter soul.

21:26  Together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them.

21:27  "You see, I know your thoughts and the schemes you plot against me

21:28  because you ask, 'Where is the house of the influential person? Where is the tent where wicked people live?'

21:29  Haven't you asked travelers? But you didn't pay attention to their directions.

21:30  On the day of disaster the wicked person is spared. On the day of God's anger he is rescued.

21:31  Who will tell him to his face how he lived? Who will pay him back for what he did?

21:32  He is carried to the cemetery, and his grave is guarded.

21:33  The soil in the creekbed is sweet to him. Everyone follows him. Countless others went before him.

21:34  How can you comfort me with this nonsense when your answers continue to betray me?"