Job 21
Common English Bible
Grant me a hearing
21 Then Job answered:
2 Listen carefully to my remarks
and let that comfort you.
3 Bear with me so I can speak, I myself;
and after my reply you can mock.
4 Are my complaints against another human;
why is my patience short?
5 Turn to me and be appalled;
lay your hand over your mouth.
6 If I recall it, I’m scared;
shaking seizes my body.
The success of the wicked
7 Why do the wicked live,
grow old, and even become strong?
8 Their children are always with them,
their offspring in their sight,
9 their houses safe from dread,
God’s punishing stick not upon them.
10 Their bull always breeds successfully;
their cows give birth and never miscarry.
11 They send forth their little ones like sheep;
their infants bounce around.
12 They raise drum and lyre,
rejoice at the sound of a flute.
13 They spend their days contentedly,
go down to the grave[a] peacefully.
14 They say to God, “Turn away from us;
we take no pleasure in knowing your ways;
15 who is the Almighty[b] that we should serve him,
and what can we gain if we meet him?”
16 Look, isn’t their well-being the work of their own hands?
A sinner’s logic is beyond me.
Desired vindication
17 How often does the lamp of the wicked flicker
or disaster come upon them,
with its fury inflicting pain on them?
18 Let them be like straw in the wind,
like dry grass stolen by a storm.
19 God stores up his punishment for his children.
Let him destroy them so they know.
20 Let their own eyes witness their doom.
Let them drink from the Almighty’s wrath.
21 What do they care about their household after they die,
when their numbered days are cut off?
A common fate
22 Will they instruct God—
he who judges the most powerful?
23 Someone dies in wonderful health,
completely comfortable and well,
24 their buckets full of milk,
their bones marrow-filled and sound.
25 Another dies in bitter spirit,
never having tasted the good things.
26 They lie together in the dust
and worms cover them.
Further disagreement
27 Look, I know your thoughts;
your plans harm me.
28 You say, “Where is the official’s house?
Where is the tent, the dwelling of the wicked?”
29 Haven’t you asked travelers
or paid attention to their reports?
30 On the day of disaster the wicked are spared;
on the day of fury they are rescued.
31 Who can criticize their behavior to their faces;
they act, and who can avenge them?
32 They are carried to their graves;
someone keeps guard over their tombs.
33 The soil near the desert streambed is sweet to them;
everyone marches after them—
those before them, beyond counting.
34 How empty is your comfort to me;
only deceit remains in your responses.
Job 21
Wycliffe Bible
21 Forsooth Job answered, and said,
2 I pray you, hear ye my words, and do ye penance.
3 Suffer ye me, that I speak; and laugh ye after my words, if it shall seem to you worthy to do so. (Allow ye me, that I speak; and then laugh ye after my words, if it shall seem worthy for you to do so.)
4 Whether my disputing is against man, that skillfully I ought not to be [made] sorry? (Is my disputing against man? have I not good cause, or a good reason, to be impatient?)
5 Perceive ye me, and be ye astonished; and set ye your finger upon your mouth.
6 And when I bethink me, I dread, and trembling shaketh my flesh. (And when I think about all of this, I am afraid, and my flesh shaketh and trembleth.)
7 Why therefore live wicked men? They be enhanced, and strengthened with riches. (And so why do the wicked live so long? Indeed they be exalted, and can enjoy their riches.)
8 Their seed dwelleth before them (Their descendants, or their children, live with them); the company of their kinsmen, and of the sons of their sons, dwelleth in their sight.
9 Their houses be secure, and peaceable; and the rod, or scourge, of God is not upon them. (Their houses be secure, and at peace; and the scourge of God is not upon them.)
10 The cow of them conceived, and calved not a dead calf; (yea,) the cow calved, and is not deprived of her calf.
11 Their little children go out as flocks; and their young children full out joy with playings. (Their little children go out to play like lambs; and their young children dance with joy.)
12 They hold the tympan, and (the) harp; and they (dance with) joy at the sound of the organ.
13 They lead in goods (all) their days; and in a point, (or suddenly,) they go down to hells, that is, to burials, or the grave. (They get good things for themselves all their days; and then, in a moment, that is, without pain, or suffering, they go down to Sheol, in peace.)
14 Which men said to God, Go thou away from us; we desire not the knowing of thy ways. (And they said to God, Go thou away from us; we do not desire to know of thy ways.)
15 Who is Almighty God, that we serve him? and what profiteth it to us, if we pray (to) him?
16 Nevertheless for their goods be not in their hand, or power, the counsel of wicked men be far from me. (And they say, that all their good things come from their own hands, or their own effort; may the counsel of the wicked be far from me!)
17 How oft shall the lantern of wicked men be quenched, and flowing shall come upon them, and God shall part with them the sorrows of his strong vengeance? (How often is the lantern of the wicked quenched, and destruction shall come upon them? how often shall God impart to them the sorrows of his strong vengeance?)
18 They shall be as chaff before the face of the wind; and as a dead spark, that the whirlwind scattereth abroad. (Be they ever like chaff before the face of the wind? or like a dead spark that the whirlwind scattereth abroad?)
19 (Ye say,) God shall keep the sorrow of the father to his sons; and when he hath yielded to them vengeance, then he shall know it. (Ye say, God shall put the father’s punishment upon his sons; but I say, No! he shall yield vengeance to him who deserveth it, and he shall know it.)
20 His eyes shall see their slaying (His eyes shall see his own slaughter); and he shall drink of the strong vengeance of Almighty God.
21 For why what pertaineth it to him of his house(hold) after him, though the number of his months be half taken away? (For what careth him about his family, or his children, after him, when his own days and months be numbered?)
22 Whether any man shall teach God knowing, which deemeth them that be (on) high? (Shall anyone teach God knowledge, he who even judgeth those who be on high?)
23 This evil man dieth strong and whole, rich and blessful to the world (rich and blessed before the world).
24 His entrails be full of fatness; and his bones be moisted with marrow.
25 And another man dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and without any riches.
26 Nevertheless they shall sleep together in (the) dust, and worms shall cover them.
27 Certainly I know your wicked thoughts, and your sentences against me.
28 For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? and where be the tabernacles of wicked men? (and where be the homes of the wicked?)
29 Ask ye this of each way-goer; and ye shall know, that he knoweth these same things,
30 that is, that an evil man shall be kept (safe) into the day of perdition, and he shall be led (forth unscathed un)to the day of strong vengeance.
31 Who shall reprove his ways before him? (Who shall rebuke him for his ways?) and who shall yield to him (for) those things, which he hath done?
32 He shall be led to the sepulchres; and he shall wake in the heap of dead men. (He shall be led to the graves, or to the tombs; and he shall stand watch over many of the dead/and many shall stand watch at his tomb.)
33 He was sweet to the stones, either filths, of hell; and he draweth each man after him, and unnumberable men went before him. (The dust of the earth shall be sweet to him/shall lie gently upon him; and he draweth each person after him, like the innumerable people who went before him.)
34 How therefore comfort ye me in vain, since your answers be showed to (be) contrary (to) the truth? (And so your comfort for me is in vain, for your answers be shown to be contrary to the truth!)
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible
2001 by Terence P. Noble