| Chapter 21 |
1 | And Job answered and said,
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2 | Hear attentively my speech, and let this replace your consolations.
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3 | Suffer me and I will speak; and after I have spoken, mock on!
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4 | As for me, is my complaint to a man? or wherefore should not my spirit be impatient?
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5 | Mark me, and be astonished, and lay the hand upon the mouth.
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6 | Even when I think [thereon], I am affrighted, and trembling taketh hold of my flesh.
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7 | Wherefore do the wicked live, grow old, yea, become mighty in power?
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8 | Their seed is established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes.
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9 | Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of +God upon them.
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10 | Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.
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11 | They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
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12 | They shout to the tambour and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
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13 | They spend their days in prosperity, and in a moment go down to Sheol.
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14 | And they say unto łGod, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways!
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15 | What is the Almighty that we should serve him? and what are we profited if we pray unto him?
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16 | Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked be far from me!
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17 | How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, and cometh their calamity upon them? Doth he distribute sorrows [to them] in his anger?
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18 | Do they become as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away?
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19 | +God layeth up [the punishment of] his iniquity for his children; he rewardeth him, and he shall know [it]:
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20 | His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the fury of the Almighty.
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21 | For what pleasure should he have in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
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22 | Can any teach łGod knowledge? And he it is that judgeth those that are high.
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23 | One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet;
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24 | His sides are full of fat, and the marrow of his bones is moistened;
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25 | And another dieth in bitterness of soul, and hath not tasted good:
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26 | Together they lie down in the dust, and the worms cover them.
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27 | Lo, I know your thoughts, and the devices ye wrongfully imagine against me.
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28 | For ye say, Where is the house of the noble? and where the tent of the dwellings of the wicked?
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29 | Have ye not asked the wayfarers? and do ye not regard their tokens:
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30 | That the wicked is reserved for the day of calamity? They are led forth to the day of wrath.
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31 | Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?
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32 | Yet is he carried to the graves, and watch is kept over the tomb.
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33 | The clods of the valley are sweet unto him; and every man followeth suit after him, as there were innumerable before him.
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34 | How then comfort ye me in vain? Your answers remain perfidious.
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