Parallel
Job 21
World English Bible British Edition · Berean Standard Bible
“Listen diligently to my speech.
“Listen carefully to my words; let this be your consolation to me.
Allow me, and I also will speak.
Bear with me while I speak; then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking.
As for me, is my complaint to man?
Is my complaint against a man? Then why should I not be impatient?
When I remember, I am troubled.
When I remember, terror takes hold, and my body trembles in horror.
Their child is established with them in their sight,
Their descendants are established around them, and their offspring before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear,
Their homes are safe from fear; no rod of punishment from God is upon them.
Their bulls breed without fail.
Their bulls breed without fail; their cows bear calves and do not miscarry.
They send out their little ones like a flock.
They send forth their little ones like a flock; their children skip about,
They sing to the tambourine and harp,
singing to the tambourine and lyre and making merry at the sound of the flute.
They spend their days in prosperity.
They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace (note: Or in an instant).
They tell God, ‘Depart from us,
Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways.
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’
Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand.
Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.
“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out,
How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come upon them? Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction?
How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind,
Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?
You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’
It is said that God lays up one’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the man himself, so he will know it.
Let his own eyes see his destruction.
Let his eyes see his own destruction; let him drink for himself the wrath of the Almighty.
For what does he care for his house after him,
For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months has run out?
“Shall any teach God knowledge,
Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since He judges those on high?
Another dies in bitterness of soul,
Yet another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, having never tasted prosperity.
They lie down alike in the dust.
But together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both.
“Behold, I know your thoughts,
Behold, I know your thoughts full well, the schemes by which you would wrong me.
For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?
For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’
Haven’t you asked wayfaring men?
Have you never asked those who travel the roads? Do you not accept their reports?
that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity,
Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.
Who will declare his way to his face?
Who denounces his behavior to his face? Who repays him for what he has done?
Yet he will be borne to the grave.
He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.
The clods of the valley will be sweet to him.
The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number.
So how can you comfort me with nonsense,
So how can you comfort me with empty words? For your answers remain full of falsehood.”