Job 21 ESV NLT Parallel

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◄ Job 21 ►

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1Then Job answered and said:

1Then Job spoke again:

2“Keep listening to my words, and let this be your comfort.

2“Listen closely to what I am saying. That’s one consolation you can give me.

3Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.

3Bear with me, and let me speak. After I have spoken, you may resume mocking me.

4As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient?

4“My complaint is with God, not with people. I have good reason to be so impatient.

5Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth.

5Look at me and be stunned. Put your hand over your mouth in shock.

6When I remember, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh.

6When I think about what I am saying, I shudder. My body trembles.

7Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?

7“Why do the wicked prosper, growing old and powerful?

8Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes.

8They live to see their children grow up and settle down, and they enjoy their grandchildren.

9Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them.

9Their homes are safe from every fear, and God does not punish them.

10Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and does not miscarry.

10Their bulls never fail to breed. Their cows bear calves and never miscarry.

11They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance.

11They let their children frisk about like lambs. Their little ones skip and dance.

12They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

12They sing with tambourine and harp. They celebrate to the sound of the flute.

13They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol.

13They spend their days in prosperity, then go down to the grave in peace.

14They say to God, ‘Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.

14And yet they say to God, ‘Go away. We want no part of you and your ways.

15What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’

15Who is the Almighty, and why should we obey him? What good will it do us to pray?’

16Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

16(They think their prosperity is of their own doing, but I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.)

17“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger?

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?

18That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?

18Are they driven before the wind like straw? Are they carried away by the storm like chaff? Not at all!

19You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’ Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.

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.

20Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

20Let them see their destruction with their own eyes. Let them drink deeply of the anger of the Almighty.

21For what do they care for their houses after them, when the number of their months is cut off?

21For they will not care what happens to their family after they are dead.

22Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those who are on high?

22“But who can teach a lesson to God, since he judges even the most powerful?

23One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure,

23One person dies in prosperity, completely comfortable and secure,

24his pails full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist.

24the picture of good health, vigorous and fit.

25Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity.

25Another person dies in bitter poverty, never having tasted the good life.

26They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them.

26But both are buried in the same dust, both eaten by the same maggots.

27“Behold, I know your thoughts and your schemes to wrong me.

27“Look, I know what you’re thinking. I know the schemes you plot against me.

28For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’

28You will tell me of rich and wicked people whose houses have vanished because of their sins.

29Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony

29But ask those who have been around, and they will tell you the truth.

30that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath?

30Evil people are spared in times of calamity and are allowed to escape disaster.

31Who declares his way to his face, and who repays him for what he has done?

31No one criticizes them openly or pays them back for what they have done.

32When he is carried to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb.

32When they are carried to the grave, an honor guard keeps watch at their tomb.

33The clods of the valley are sweet to him; all mankind follows after him, and those who go before him are innumerable.

33A great funeral procession goes to the cemetery. Many pay their respects as the body is laid to rest, and the earth gives sweet repose.

34How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”

34“How can your empty clich�s comfort me? All your explanations are lies!”

ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.

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