| Chapter 21 |
1 | Then Job answered, and said: |
2 | Hear, I beseech you, my words, and do penance. |
3 | Suffer me, and I will speak, and after, if you please, laugh at my words. |
4 | Is my debate against man, that I should not have just reason to be troubled? |
5 | Hearken to me and be astonished, and lay your finger on your mouth. |
6 | As for me, when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh. |
7 | Why then do the wicked live, are they advanced, and strengthened with riches? |
8 | Their seed continueth before them, a multitude of kinsmen, and of children's children in their sight. |
9 | Their houses are secure and peaceable, and the rod of God is not upon them. |
10 | Their cattle have conceived, and failed not: their cow has calved, and is not deprived of her fruit. |
11 | Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children dance and play. |
12 | They take the timbrel, and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. |
13 | They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell. |
14 | Who have said to God: Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. |
15 | Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what doth it profit us if we pray to him? |
16 | Yet because their good things are not in their hand, may the counsel of the wicked be far from me. |
17 | 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? |
18 | They shall be as chaff before the face of the wind, and as ashes which the whirlwind scattereth. |
19 | God shall lay up the sorrow of the father for his children: and when he shall repay, then shall he know. |
20 | His eyes shall see his own destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty. |
21 | For what is it to him what befalleth his house after him: and if the number of his months be diminished by one half? |
22 | Shall any one teach God knowledge, who judgeth those that are high? |
23 | One man dieth strong, and hale, rich and happy. |
24 | His bowels are full of fat, and his bones are moistened with marrow. |
25 | But another dieth in bitterness of soul without any riches: |
26 | And yet they shall sleep together in the dust, and worms shall cover them. |
27 | Surely I know your thoughts, and your unjust judgments against me. |
28 | For you say: Where is the house of the prince ? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked? |
29 | Ask any one of them that go by the way, and you shall perceive that he knoweth these same things. |
30 | Because the wicked man is reserved to the day of destruction, and he shall be brought to the day of wrath. |
31 | Who shall reprove his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done? |
32 | He shall be brought to the graves, and shall watch in the heap of the dead. |
33 | He hath been acceptable to the gravel of Cocytus, and he shall draw every man after him, and there are innumerable before him. |
34 | How then do ye comfort me in vain, whereas your answer is shewn to be repugnant to truth ? |