Chapter 21

Then Job answered, and said:

Hear, I beseech you, my words, and do penance.

Suffer me, and I will speak, and after, if you please, laugh at my words.

Is my debate against man, that I should not have just reason to be troubled?

Hearken to me and be astonished, and lay your finger on your mouth.

As for me, when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.

Why then do the wicked live, are they advanced, and strengthened with riches?

Their seed continueth before them, a multitude of kinsmen, and of children's children in their sight.

Their houses are secure and peaceable, and the rod of God is not upon them.

Their cattle have conceived, and failed not: their cow has calved, and is not deprived of her fruit.

Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children dance and play.

They take the timbrel, and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.

They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell.

Who have said to God: Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what doth it profit us if we pray to him?

Yet because their good things are not in their hand, may the counsel of the wicked be far from me.

How often shall the lamp of the wicked be put out, and a deluge come upon them, and he shall distribute the sorrows of his wrath?

They shall be as chaff before the face of the wind, and as ashes which the whirlwind scattereth.

God shall lay up the sorrow of the father for his children: and when he shall repay, then shall he know.

His eyes shall see his own destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

For what is it to him what befalleth his house after him: and if the number of his months be diminished by one half?

Shall any one teach God knowledge, who judgeth those that are high?

One man dieth strong, and hale, rich and happy.

His bowels are full of fat, and his bones are moistened with marrow.

But another dieth in bitterness of soul without any riches:

And yet they shall sleep together in the dust, and worms shall cover them.

Surely I know your thoughts, and your unjust judgments against me.

For you say: Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?

Ask any one of them that go by the way, and you shall perceive that he knoweth these same things.

Because the wicked man is reserved to the day of destruction, and he shall be brought to the day of wrath.

Who shall reprove his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?

He shall be brought to the graves, and shall watch in the heap of the dead.

He hath been acceptable to the gravel of Cocytus, and he shall draw every man after him, and there are innumerable before him.

How then do ye comfort me in vain, whereas your answer is shewn to be repugnant to truth?