21:2 “Listen carefully to my words; let this be the comfort you give me.
21:3 Bear with me as I speak; then, after I have spoken, you can go on mocking.
21:4 “As for me, is my complaint merely to other people? Don’t I have grounds for being short-tempered?
21:5 Look at me, and be appalled; cover your mouth with your hand!
21:6 Whenever I recall it, I am in shock; my whole body shudders.
21:7 “Why do the wicked go on living, grow old and keep increasing their power?
21:8 They see their children settled with them, their posterity assured.
21:9 Their houses are safe, with nothing to fear; God’s rod is not on them.
21:10 Their bulls are fertile without fail, their cows get pregnant and don’t miscarry.
21:11 They produce flocks of babies, and their children dance around.
21:12 They sing with tambourines and lyres and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
21:13 They spend their days in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace.
21:14 “Yet to God they said, ‘Leave us alone! We don’t want to know about your ways.
21:15 What is Shaddai, that we should serve him? What do we gain if we pray to him?’
21:16 Isn’t their prosperity already theirs? The plans of the wicked are far from me.
21:17 “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their calamity come upon them? How often does [God] deal out pain in his anger,
21:18 to make them like straw in the wind, like chaff carried off by a storm?
21:19 God lays up for their children [the punishment for their] iniquity. He should lay it on [the wicked] themselves, so that they can feel it!
21:20 Let their own eyes see their own destruction and themselves drink the wrath of Shaddai.
21:21 What joy can they have in their family after them, given that their months are numbered?
21:22 “Can anyone teach God knowledge? After all, he judges those who are on high.
21:23 One person dies in his full strength, completely at ease and content;
21:24 his pails are full of milk, and the marrow in his bones is moist.
21:25 Another dies with embittered heart, never having tasted happiness.
21:26 They lie down alike in the dust, and the worm covers them both.
21:27 “Look, I know what you are thinking and your plans to do me wrong.
21:28 You ask, ‘Where is the great man’s house? Where is the tent where the wicked once lived?’
21:29 Haven’t you ever questioned travelers? Don’t you accept their testimony
21:30 that the evil man is saved on the day of disaster, rescued on the day of wrath?
21:31 So who will confront him with his ways? Who will repay him for what he has done?
21:32 For he is carried off to the grave, people keep watch over his tomb,
21:33 the clods of the valley are sweet to him; so everyone follows his example, just as before him were countless others.
21:34 “Why offer me such meaningless comfort? Of your answers, only the perfidy remains.”
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