ReverendAttentive listening

Job 21

Job: Why Do the Wicked Live On and Grow Strong?

Job’s Second Answer to Zophar

21:1Then Job replied:

21:2“Listen, listen to my words,
so that this consolation from you may not be mine.

21:3Lift me up, and I will speak;
then you will not laugh at me.

21:4For what then? Is my reproof from a human?
Or why should I not become angry?

21:5Look at me and be amazed,
placing a hand upon your cheek.

21:6For whenever I remember, I am agitated,
and pains grip my flesh.

21:7Why do the ungodly live
and grow old even in wealth?

21:8Their offspring are to their liking,
and their children are before their eyes.

21:9Their houses flourish, and fear is nowhere;
a scourge from the Lord is not upon them.

21:10Their cow did not calve prematurely;
their pregnant animal was preserved and did not miscarry.

21:11They remain like everlasting sheep,
and their children play,

21:12taking up a psaltery and lyre;
they delight in the sound of a song.

21:13They finished their life amid good things
and fell asleep in the rest of Hades.

21:14Yet he says to the Lord, ‘Go away from me!
I do not wish to know Your ways.

21:15What is the Mighty One, that we should serve Him?
And what benefit is there in meeting Him?’

21:16For their good things were in their hands,
and He does not look upon the works of the ungodly.

21:17Nevertheless, even the lamp of the ungodly will be extinguished;
overthrow will come upon them,
and pangs will grip them because of wrath.

21:18They will be like straw before the wind,
or like dust that a storm swept away.

21:19May his possessions fail his sons;
He will repay the man himself, and he will know.

21:20May his eyes see his own slaughter,
and may he not be delivered from the Lord.

21:21For what is his desire in his house after him?
The numbers of his months have been divided.

21:22Is it not the Lord who teaches understanding and knowledge?
He Himself will judge murders.

21:23This one will die in the strength of his integrity,
entirely comfortable and prosperous;

21:24his inward parts are full of fat,
and his marrow spreads abundantly.

21:25But another dies in bitterness of soul,
never having eaten anything good.

21:26Together they sleep upon the earth,
and decay covers them.

21:27So I know you:
you press upon me with insolence.

21:28For you will say, ‘Where is the ruler’s house,
and where is the shelter of the ungodly’s dwellings?’

21:29Ask those passing along the road,
and do not reject their signs,

21:30for the wicked person is relieved for the day of destruction;
they will be led away for the day of his wrath.

21:31Who will declare his way to his face?
And what he himself did—who will repay him?

21:32He himself was carried to tombs
and kept vigil upon a coffin.

21:33The pebbles of the stream became sweet to him;
every human will go after him,
and those before him are countless.

21:34How can you console me with empty things?
There is no relief for me from you.”

Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.