| Chapter 21 |
1 | But Job answered and said,
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2 | Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations.
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3 | Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.
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4 | As for me, [is] my complaint to man? and if [it were so], why should not my spirit be troubled?
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5 | Mark me, and be astonished, and lay [your] hand upon [your] mouth.
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6 | Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.
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7 | Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
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8 | Their seed is established in their sight with them, 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 take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.
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13 | They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.
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14 | Therefore they say unto God, 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 profit should we have, if we pray unto him?
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16 | Lo, their good [is] not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
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17 | How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and [how oft] cometh their destruction upon them! [God] distributeth sorrows in his anger.
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18 | They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
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19 | God layeth up 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 wrath of the Almighty.
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21 | For what pleasure [hath] he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?
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22 | Shall [any] teach God knowledge? seeing he 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 breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow.
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25 | And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure.
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26 | They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.
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27 | Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices [which] ye wrongfully imagine against me.
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28 | For ye say, Where [is] the house of the prince? and where [are] the dwelling places of the wicked?
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29 | Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens,
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30 | That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought 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 shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.
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33 | The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as [there are] innumerable before him.
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34 | How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?
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