Parallel Bible results for "job 21"

Job 21

ESV

MSG

1 Then Job answered and said:
1 Job replied:
2 "Keep listening to my words, and let this be your comfort.
2 "Now listen to me carefully, please listen, at least do me the favor of listening.
3 Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.
3 Put up with me while I have my say - then you can mock me later to your heart's content.
4 As for me, is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient?
4 "It's not you I'm complaining to - it's God. Is it any wonder I'm getting fed up with his silence?
5 Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth.
5 Take a good look at me. Aren't you appalled by what's happened? No! Don't say anything. I can do without your comments.
6 When I remember, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh.
6 When I look back, I go into shock, my body is racked with spasms.
7 Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
7 Why do the wicked have it so good, live to a ripe old age and get rich?
8 Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes.
8 They get to see their children succeed, get to watch and enjoy their grandchildren.
9 Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them.
9 Their homes are peaceful and free from fear; they never experience God's disciplining rod.
10 Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and does not miscarry.
10 Their bulls breed with great vigor and their cows calve without fail.
11 They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance.
11 They send their children out to play and watch them frolic like spring lambs.
12 They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
12 They make music with fiddles and flutes, have good times singing and dancing.
13 They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol.
13 They have a long life on easy street, and die painlessly in their sleep.
14 They say to God, 'Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.
14 They say to God, 'Get lost! We've no interest in you or your ways.
15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?'
15 Why should we have dealings with God Almighty? What's there in it for us?'
16 Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand? The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
16 But they're wrong, dead wrong - they're not gods. It's beyond me how they can carry on like this!
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 "Still, how often does it happen that the wicked fail, or disaster strikes, or they get their just deserts?
18 That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?
18 How often are they blown away by bad luck? Not very often.
19 You say, 'God stores up their iniquity for their children.' Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.
19 You might say, 'God is saving up the punishment for their children.' I say, 'Give it to them right now so they'll know what they've done!'
20 Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
20 They deserve to experience the effects of their evil, feel the full force of God's wrath firsthand.
21 For what do they care for their houses after them, when the number of their months is cut off?
21 What do they care what happens to their families after they're safely tucked away in the grave? Fancy Funerals with All the Trimmings
22 Will any teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those who are on high?
22 "But who are we to tell God how to run his affairs? He's dealing with matters that are way over our heads.
23 One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure,
23 Some people die in the prime of life, with everything going for them -
24 his pails full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist.
24 fat and sassy.
25 Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity.
25 Others die bitter and bereft, never getting a taste of happiness.
26 They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them.
26 They're laid out side by side in the cemetery, where the worms can't tell one from the other.
27 "Behold, I know your thoughts and your schemes to wrong me.
27 "I'm not deceived. I know what you're up to, the plans you're cooking up to bring me down.
28 For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?'
28 Naively you claim that the castles of tyrants fall to pieces, that the achievements of the wicked collapse.
29 Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony
29 Have you ever asked world travelers how they see it? Have you not listened to their stories
30 that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath?
30 Of evil men and women who got off scot-free, who never had to pay for their wickedness?
31 Who declares his way to his face, and who repays him for what he has done?
31 Did anyone ever confront them with their crimes? Did they ever have to face the music?
32 When he is carried to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb.
32 Not likely - they're given fancy funerals with all the trimmings,
33 The clods of the valley are sweet to him; all mankind follows after him, and those who go before him are innumerable.
33 Gently lowered into expensive graves, with everyone telling lies about how wonderful they were.
34 How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood."
34 "So how do you expect me to get any comfort from your nonsense? Your so-called comfort is a tissue of lies."
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.