Job 21 - New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021(NRSVUE)

Job 21Job Replies: The Wicked Often Go Unpunished

1Then Job answered:

2“Listen carefully to my words,

and let this be your consolation.

3 that we should serve him?

And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’

16

The plans of the wicked are repugnant to me.

17 distribute pains in his anger?

18

21For what do they care for their household after them,

when the number of their months is cut off?

22 Isa 40.13, 14 Will any teach God knowledge,

seeing that he judges those who are on high?

23One dies in full prosperity,

being wholly at ease and secure,

24his loins full of milk

and the marrow of his bones moist.

25Another dies in bitterness of soul,

never having tasted of good.

26 Job 24.20; Eccl 9.2 They lie down alike in the dust,

and the worms cover them.

27“Oh, I know your thoughts

and your schemes to wrong me.

28 Job 8.22; 12.21 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?

Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’

29Have you not asked those who travel the roads,

and do you not accept their testimony,

30 Job 20.28; Prov 16.4; Rom 2.5; 2 Pet 2.9 that the wicked are spared in the day of calamity

and are rescued in the day of wrath?

31Who declares their way to their face,

and who repays them for what they have done?

32When they are carried to the grave,

a watch is kept over their tomb.

33 Job 3.19, 22; 17.16; 24.24 The clods of the valley are sweet to them;

everyone will follow after,

and those who went before are innumerable.

34How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?

There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”