Job 21-23

New International Version - UK

² ‘Listen carefully to my words;
    let this be the consolation you give me.
³ Bear with me while I speak,
    and after I have spoken, mock on.

⁴ ‘Is my complaint directed to a human being?
    Why should I not be impatient?
⁵ Look at me and be appalled;
    clap your hand over your mouth.
⁶ When I think about this, I am terrified;
    trembling seizes my body.
⁷ Why do the wicked live on,
    growing old and increasing in power?
⁸ They see their children established around them,
    their offspring before their eyes.
⁹ Their homes are safe and free from fear;
    the rod of God is not on them.
¹⁰ Their bulls never fail to breed;
    their cows calve and do not miscarry.
¹¹ They send forth their children as a flock;
    their little ones dance about.
¹² They sing to the music of tambourine and lyre;
    they make merry to the sound of the pipe.
¹³ They spend their years in prosperity
    and go down to the grave in peace.^[a]
14 Yet they say to God, “Leave us alone!
    We have no desire to know your ways.
¹⁵ Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
    What would we gain by praying to him?”
¹⁶ But their prosperity is not in their own hands,
    so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked.

¹⁷ ‘Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?
    How often does calamity come upon them,
    the fate God allots in his anger?
¹⁸ How often are they like straw before the wind,
    like chaff swept away by a gale?
¹⁹ It is said, “God stores up the punishment of the wicked for their children.”
    Let him repay the wicked, so that they themselves will experience it!
²⁰ Let their own eyes see their destruction;
    let them drink the cup of the wrath of the Almighty.
²¹ For what do they care about the families they leave behind
    when their allotted months come to an end?

²² ‘Can anyone teach knowledge to God,
    since he judges even the highest?
²³ One person dies in full vigour,
    completely secure and at ease,
²⁴ well nourished in body,^[b]
    bones rich with marrow.
²⁵ Another dies in bitterness of soul,
    never having enjoyed anything good.
²⁶ Side by side they lie in the dust,
    and worms cover them both.

²⁷ ‘I know full well what you are thinking,
    the schemes by which you would wrong me.
²⁸ You say, “Where now is the house of the great,
    the tents where the wicked lived?”
²⁹ Have you never questioned those who travel?
    Have you paid no regard to their accounts –
³⁰ that the wicked are spared from the day of calamity,
    that they are delivered from^[c] the day of wrath?
³¹ Who denounces their conduct to their face?
    Who repays them for what they have done?
³² They are carried to the grave,
    and watch is kept over their tombs.
³³ The soil in the valley is sweet to them;
    everyone follows after them,
    and a countless throng goes^[d] before them.

³⁴ ‘So how can you console me with your nonsense?
    Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!’

² ‘Can a man be of benefit to God?
    Can even a wise person benefit him?
³ What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous?
    What would he gain if your ways were blameless?

⁴ ‘Is it for your piety that he rebukes you
    and brings charges against you?
⁵ Is not your wickedness great?
    Are not your sins endless?
⁶ You demanded security from your relatives for no reason;
    you stripped people of their clothing, leaving them naked.
⁷ You gave no water to the weary
    and you withheld food from the hungry,
⁸ though you were a powerful man, owning land –
    an honoured man, living on it.
⁹ And you sent widows away empty-handed
    and broke the strength of the fatherless.
¹⁰ That is why snares are all around you,
    why sudden peril terrifies you,
¹¹ why it is so dark that you cannot see,
    and why a flood of water covers you.

¹² ‘Is not God in the heights of heaven?
    And see how lofty are the highest stars!
¹³ Yet you say, “What does God know?
    Does he judge through such darkness?
¹⁴ Thick clouds veil him, so he does not see us
    as he goes about in the vaulted heavens.”
¹⁵ Will you keep to the old path
    that the wicked have trod?
¹⁶ They were carried off before their time,
    their foundations washed away by a flood.
¹⁷ They said to God, “Leave us alone!
    What can the Almighty do to us?”
¹⁸ Yet it was he who filled their houses with good things,
    so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked.
¹⁹ The righteous see their ruin and rejoice;
    the innocent mock them, saying,
²⁰ “Surely our foes are destroyed,
    and fire devours their wealth.”

²¹ ‘Submit to God and be at peace with him;
    in this way prosperity will come to you.
²² Accept instruction from his mouth
    and lay up his words in your heart.
²³ If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored:
    if you remove wickedness far from your tent
²⁴ and assign your nuggets to the dust,
    your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines,
²⁵ then the Almighty will be your gold,
    the choicest silver for you.
²⁶ Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty
    and will lift up your face to God.
²⁷ You will pray to him, and he will hear you,
    and you will fulfil your vows.
²⁸ What you decide on will be done,
    and light will shine on your ways.
²⁹ When people are brought low and you say, “Lift them up!”
    then he will save the downcast.
³⁰ He will deliver even one who is not innocent,
    who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.’

² ‘Even today my complaint is bitter;
    his hand^[e] is heavy in spite of^[f] my groaning.
³ If only I knew where to find him;
    if only I could go to his dwelling!
⁴ I would state my case before him
    and fill my mouth with arguments.
⁵ I would find out what he would answer me,
    and consider what he would say to me.
⁶ Would he vigorously oppose me with great power?
    No, he would not press charges against me.
⁷ There the upright can establish their innocence before him,
    and there I would be delivered for ever from my judge.

⁸ ‘But if I go to the east, he is not there;
    if I go to the west, I do not find him.
⁹ When he is at work in the north, I do not see him;
    when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.
¹⁰ But he knows the way that I take;
    when he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
¹¹ My feet have closely followed his steps;
    I have kept to his way without turning aside.
¹² I have not departed from the commands of his lips;
    I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.

¹³ ‘But he stands alone, and who can oppose him?
    He does whatever he pleases.
¹⁴ He carries out his decree against me,
    and many such plans he still has in store.
¹⁵ That is why I am terrified before him;
    when I think of all this, I fear him.
¹⁶ God has made my heart faint;
    the Almighty has terrified me.
¹⁷ Yet I am not silenced by the darkness,
    by the thick darkness that covers my face.