178 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
178 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
Job's Seventh Speech: A Response to Zophar
|
||
|
||
# Chapter 21
|
||
1. Then Job spoke again:
|
||
|
||
2. "Listen closely to what I am saying.
|
||
|
||
That's one consolation you can give me.
|
||
|
||
|
||
3. Bear with me, and let me speak.
|
||
|
||
After I have spoken, you may resume mocking me.
|
||
|
||
|
||
4. "My complaint is with God, not with people.
|
||
|
||
I have good reason to be so impatient.
|
||
|
||
|
||
5. Look at me and be stunned.
|
||
|
||
Put your hand over your mouth in shock.
|
||
|
||
|
||
6. When I think about what I am saying, I shudder.
|
||
|
||
My body trembles.
|
||
|
||
|
||
7. "Why do the wicked prosper,
|
||
|
||
growing old and powerful?
|
||
|
||
|
||
8. They live to see their children grow up and settle down,
|
||
|
||
and they enjoy their grandchildren.
|
||
|
||
|
||
9. Their homes are safe from every fear,
|
||
|
||
and God does not punish them.
|
||
|
||
|
||
10. Their bulls never fail to breed.
|
||
|
||
Their cows bear calves and never miscarry.
|
||
|
||
|
||
11. They let their children frisk about like lambs.
|
||
|
||
Their little ones skip and dance.
|
||
|
||
|
||
12. They sing with tambourine and harp.
|
||
|
||
They celebrate to the sound of the flute.
|
||
|
||
|
||
13. They spend their days in prosperity,
|
||
then go down to the grave in peace.
|
||
|
||
14. And yet they say to God, 'Go away.
|
||
|
||
We want no part of you and your ways.
|
||
|
||
|
||
15. Who is the Almighty, and why should we obey him?
|
||
|
||
What good will it do us to pray?'
|
||
|
||
|
||
16. (They think their prosperity is of their own doing,
|
||
|
||
but I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.)
|
||
|
||
|
||
17. "Yet the light of the wicked never seems to be extinguished.
|
||
|
||
Do they ever have trouble?
|
||
|
||
Does God distribute sorrows to them in anger?
|
||
|
||
|
||
18. Are they driven before the wind like straw?
|
||
|
||
Are they carried away by the storm like chaff?
|
||
|
||
Not at all!
|
||
|
||
|
||
19. "'Well,' you say, 'at least God will punish their children!'
|
||
|
||
But I say he should punish the ones who sin,
|
||
|
||
so that they understand his judgment.
|
||
|
||
|
||
20. Let them see their destruction with their own eyes.
|
||
|
||
Let them drink deeply of the anger of the Almighty.
|
||
|
||
|
||
21. For they will not care what happens to their family
|
||
|
||
after they are dead.
|
||
|
||
|
||
22. "But who can teach a lesson to God,
|
||
|
||
since he judges even the most powerful?
|
||
|
||
|
||
23. One person dies in prosperity,
|
||
|
||
completely comfortable and secure,
|
||
|
||
|
||
24. the picture of good health,
|
||
|
||
vigorous and fit.
|
||
|
||
|
||
25. Another person dies in bitter poverty,
|
||
|
||
never having tasted the good life.
|
||
|
||
|
||
26. But both are buried in the same dust,
|
||
|
||
both eaten by the same maggots.
|
||
|
||
|
||
27. "Look, I know what you're thinking.
|
||
|
||
I know the schemes you plot against me.
|
||
|
||
|
||
28. You will tell me of rich and wicked people
|
||
|
||
whose houses have vanished because of their sins.
|
||
|
||
|
||
29. But ask those who have been around,
|
||
|
||
and they will tell you the truth.
|
||
|
||
|
||
30. Evil people are spared in times of calamity
|
||
|
||
and are allowed to escape disaster.
|
||
|
||
|
||
31. No one criticizes them openly
|
||
|
||
or pays them back for what they have done.
|
||
|
||
|
||
32. When they are carried to the grave,
|
||
|
||
an honor guard keeps watch at their tomb.
|
||
|
||
|
||
33. A great funeral procession goes to the cemetery.
|
||
|
||
Many pay their respects as the body is laid to rest,
|
||
|
||
and the earth gives sweet repose.
|
||
|
||
|
||
34. "How can your empty clich<63>s comfort me?
|
||
|
||
All your explanations are lies!"
|
||
|
||
|
||
|