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