|
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 man?
Why should I not be impatient? |
5 Look at me and be astonished;
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 upon 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 harp;
they make merry to the sound of the flute. |
13 They spend their years in prosperity
and go down to the grave1 21:13 Hebrew Sheol in peace.2 21:13 Or in an instant |
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 counsel 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 a man's punishment for his sons.'
Let him repay the man himself, so that he will know it! |
20 Let his own eyes see his destruction;
let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.3 21:17-20 Verses 17 and 18 may be taken as exclamations and 19 and 20 as declarations. |
21 For what does he care about the family he leaves behind
when his allotted months come to an end? |
22 "Can anyone teach knowledge to God,
since he judges even the highest? |
23 One man dies in full vigor,
completely secure and at ease, |
24 his body4 21:24 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain. well nourished,
his bones rich with marrow. |
25 Another man 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 great man's house,
the tents where wicked men lived?' |
29 Have you never questioned those who travel?
Have you paid no regard to their accounts- |
30 that the evil man is spared from the day of calamity,
that he is delivered from5 21:30 Or man is reserved for the day of calamity, / that he is brought forth to the day of wrath? |
31 Who denounces his conduct to his face?
Who repays him for what he has done? |
32 He is carried to the grave,
and watch is kept over his tomb. |
33 The soil in the valley is sweet to him;
all men follow after him,
and a countless throng goes6 21:33 Or / as a countless throng went before him. |
34 "So how can you console me with your nonsense?
Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!" |
