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Job 21 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

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

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

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