Job’s Seventh Speech: A Response to Zophar
21 Then Job answered and said,
2 “Listen carefully to my words,
and let this be your consolation.
3 Bear with me, and I myself will speak;
then after my speaking you can mock.
4 As for me, is my complaint for human beings?
And if so, why cannot I be impatient?
5 Turn to me and be appalled,
and place your hand on your mouth.
6 And when I think of it, I am horrified,
and shuddering seizes my flesh.
7 “Why do the wicked live,
grow old, even grow mighty in power?
8 With them their offspring are established before them,
and their descendants before their eyes.
9 Their houses are safe without fear,
and the rod of God is not upon them.
10 His bull breeds and does not fail;
his cow calves and does not miscarry.
11 They send out their little ones like the flock,
and their children dance around.
12 They sing to the tambourine and lyre,
and they rejoice to the sound of the long flute.
13 They spend their days in prosperity,
and in peace they go down to Sheol.
14 And they say to God, ‘Turn away from us,
for we do not desire to know your ways.
15 Who is Shaddai that we should serve him,
or what would we benefit when we plead with him?’
16 Look, their prosperity is not in their hands;
the schemes of the wicked are repugnant to me.
17 “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out,
and their disaster comes upon them?
He distributes pains in his anger.
18 How often are they like straw before the wind,
and like chaff that the storm carries away?
19 ‘God stores up his iniquity for his children’?
Then let him repay it to him that he may know.
20 Let his eyes see his decay,
and let him drink from the wrath of Shaddai,
21 for what does he care for his house after him,
when the number of his months is cut off?
22 Can anyone teach knowledge to God,
since he himself judges high ones?
23 This one dies in full prosperity,
completely at ease and secure.
24 His vats are full with milk
and the marrow of his bones is moist.
25 Yet another dies with a bitter inner self
and has not tasted prosperity.
26 They lie down together in the dust,
and maggots cover them.
27 “Look, I know your thoughts
and the schemes you devise against me.
28 For you say, ‘Where is the nobleman’s house,
and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’
29 Do you not ask those traveling the roads,
and do you not take notice of their accounts?
30 Indeed, the wicked is spared from the day of disaster;
he is delivered from the day of wrath.
31 Who denounces his way to his face?
And who repays him for what he has done?
32 When he is brought to the grave,
then someone stands guard over the tomb.
33 The clods of the valley are sweet to him;
everyone will follow after him,
and before him they are innumerable.
34 So how will you comfort me with emptiness,
when fraud is left in your answers?”
Footnotes
- Job 21:1
- Job 21:2
- Job 21:3
- Job 21:3
- Job 21:6
- Job 21:8
- Job 21:12
- Job 21:14
- Job 21:15
- Job 21:16
- Job 21:17
- Job 21:18
- Job 21:19
- Job 21:19
- Job 21:21
- Job 21:21
- Job 21:22
- Job 21:22
- Job 21:23
- Job 21:23
- Job 21:25
- Job 21:25
- Job 21:27
- Job 21:28
- Job 21:32
- Job 21:32
- Job 21:33
- Job 21:33
- Job 21:34
- Job 21:34
