| 章 |
| 21:1 |
Then Job answered:
|
| 21:2 |
'Listen carefully to my words, and let this be your consolation.
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| 21:3 |
Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.
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| 21:4 |
As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient?
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| 21:5 |
Look at me, and be appalled, and lay your hand upon your mouth.
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| 21:6 |
When I think of it I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh.
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| 21:7 |
Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
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| 21:8 |
Their children are established in their presence, and their offspring before their eyes.
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| 21:9 |
Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them.
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| 21:10 |
Their bull breeds without fail;their cow calves, and does not cast her calf.
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| 21:11 |
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
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| 21:12 |
They sing to the tambourine and the lyre, and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
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| 21:13 |
They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol.
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| 21:14 |
They say to God, Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of thy ways.
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| 21:15 |
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?'
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| 21:16 |
Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
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| 21:17 |
'How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger?
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| 21:18 |
That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?
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| 21:19 |
You say, God stores up their iniquity for their sons.' Let him recompense it to themselves, that they may know it.
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| 21:20 |
Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
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| 21:21 |
For what do they care for their houses after them, when the number of their months is cut off?
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| 21:22 |
Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those that are on high?
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| 21:23 |
One dies in full prosperity, being wholly at ease and secure,
|
| 21:24 |
his body full of fat and the marrow of his bones moist.
|
| 21:25 |
Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of good.
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| 21:26 |
They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them.
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| 21:27 |
'Behold, I know your thoughts, and your schemes to wrong me.
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| 21:28 |
For you say, Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked dwelt?'
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| 21:29 |
Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony
|
| 21:30 |
that the wicked man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath?
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| 21:31 |
Who declares his way to his face, and who requites him for what he has done?
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| 21:32 |
When he is borne to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb.
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| 21:33 |
The clods of the valley are sweet to him;all men follow after him, and those who go before him are innumerable.
|
| 21:34 |
How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.'
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