NET Bible

Job’s Reply to Zophar1

^21:1 Then Job answered:

^21:2 “Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you offer me. ^21:3 Bear with me and I will speak, and after I have spoken you may mock. ^21:4 Is my complaint against a man? If so, why should I not be impatient? ^21:5 Look at me and be appalled; put your hands over your mouths. ^21:6 For, when I think about this, I am terrified and my body feels a shudder.

The Wicked Prosper

^21:7 “Why do the wicked go on living, grow old, even increase in power? ^21:8 Their children are firmly established in their presence, their offspring before their eyes. ^21:9 Their houses are safe and without fear; and no rod of punishment from God is upon them. ^21:10 Their bulls breed without fail; their cows calve and do not miscarry. ^21:11 They allow their children to run like a flock; their little ones dance about. ^21:12 They sing to the accompaniment of tambourine and harp, and make merry to the sound of the flute. ^21:13 They live out their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace. ^21:14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us! We do not want to know your ways. ^21:15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain if we were to pray to him?’ ^21:16 But their prosperity is not their own doing. The counsel of the wicked is far from me!

How Often Do the Wicked Suffer?

^21:17 “How often is the lamp of the wicked extinguished? How often does their misfortune come upon them? How often does God apportion pain to them in his anger? ^21:18 How often are they like straw before the wind and like chaff swept away by a whirlwind? ^21:19 You may say, ‘God stores up a man’s punishment for his children!’ Instead let him repay the man himself so that he may be humbled! ^21:20 Let his own eyes see his destruction; let him drink of the anger of the Almighty. ^21:21 For what is his interest in his home after his death, when the number of his months has been broken off? ^21:22 Can anyone teach God knowledge, since he judges those that are on high?

Death Levels Everything

^21:23 “One man dies in his full vigor, completely secure and prosperous, ^21:24 his body well nourished, and the marrow of his bones moist. ^21:25 And another man dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted anything good. ^21:26 Together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover over them both.

Futile Words, Deceptive Answers

^21:27 “Yes, I know what you are thinking, the schemes by which you would wrong me. ^21:28 For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked lived?’ ^21:29 Have you never questioned those who travel the roads? Do you not recognize their accounts — ^21:30 that the evil man is spared from the day of his misfortune, that he is delivered from the day of God’s wrath? ^21:31 No one denounces his conduct to his face; no one repays him for what he has done. ^21:32 And when he is carried to the tombs and watch is kept over the funeral mound, ^21:33 the clods of the torrent valley are sweet to him; behind him everybody follows in procession, and before him goes a countless throng. ^21:34 So how can you console me with your futile words? Nothing is left of your answers but deception!”