Change Translation
Loading
  • Recent Translations
  • All Translations

Job 20; Job 21

Viewing Multiple Passages

Share

Settings

Job 20

1 Job, you upset me.
2 Now I'm impatient to answer.
3 What you have said is an insult, but I know how to reply to you.
4 Surely you know that from ancient times, when we humans were first placed on earth,
5 no wicked people have been happy for long.
6 They may grow great, towering to the sky, so great that their heads reach the clouds,
7 but they will be blown away like dust. Those who used to know them will wonder where they have gone.
8 They will vanish like a dream, like a vision at night, and never be seen again.
9 The wicked will disappear from the place where they used to live;
10 and their children will make good what they stole from the poor.
11 Their bodies used to be young and vigorous, but soon they will turn to dust.
12 Evil tastes so good to them that they keep some in their mouths to enjoy its flavor.
14 But in their stomachs the food turns bitter, as bitter as any poison could be.
15 The wicked vomit up the wealth they stole; God takes it back, even out of their stomachs.
16 What the evil people swallow is like poison; it kills them like the bite of a deadly snake.
17 They will not live to see rivers of olive oil or streams that flow with milk and honey.
18 They will have to give up all they have worked for; they will have no chance to enjoy their wealth,
19 because they oppressed and neglected the poor and seized houses someone else had built.
20 Their greed is never satisfied.
21 When they eat, there is nothing left over, but now their prosperity comes to an end.
22 At the height of their success all the weight of misery will crush them.
23 Let them eat all they want! God will punish them in fury and anger.
24 When they try to escape from an iron sword, a bronze bow will shoot them down.
25 Arrows stick through their bodies; the shiny points drip with their blood, and terror grips their hearts.
26 Everything they have saved is destroyed; a fire not lit by human hands burns them and all their family.
27 Heaven reveals their sin, and the earth gives testimony against them.
28 All their wealth will be destroyed in the flood of God's anger.
29 This is the fate of wicked people, the fate that God assigns to them.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Job 21

1 Listen to what I am saying;
2 that is all the comfort I ask from you.
3 Give me a chance to speak and then, when I am through, sneer if you like.
4 My quarrel is not with mortals; I have good reason to be impatient.
5 Look at me. Isn't that enough to make you stare in shocked silence?
6 When I think of what has happened to me, I am stunned, and I tremble and shake.
7 Why does God let evil people live, let them grow old and prosper?
8 They have children and grandchildren, and live to watch them all grow up.
9 God does not bring disaster on their homes; they never have to live in terror.
10 Yes, all their cattle breed and give birth without trouble.
11 Their children run and play like lambs
12 and dance to the music of harps and flutes.
13 They live out their lives in peace and quietly die without suffering.
14 The wicked tell God to leave them alone; they don't want to know his will for their lives.
15 They think there is no need to serve God nor any advantage in praying to him.
16 They claim they succeed by their own strength, but their way of thinking I can't accept.
17 Was a wicked person's light ever put out? Did one of them ever meet with disaster? Did God ever punish the wicked in anger
18 and blow them away like straw in the wind, or like dust carried away in a storm?
19 You claim God punishes a child for the sins of his father. No! Let God punish the sinners themselves; let him show that he does it because of [their ]sins.
20 Let sinners bear their own punishment; let them feel the wrath of Almighty God.
21 When our lives are over, do we really care whether our children are happy?
22 Can anyone teach God, who judges even those in high places?
23 Some people stay healthy till the day they die; they die happy and at ease, their bodies well-nourished.
25 Others have no happiness at all; they live and die with bitter hearts.
26 But all alike die and are buried; they all are covered with worms.
27 I know what spiteful thoughts you have.
28 You ask, "Where are the homes of great people now, those who practiced evil?"
29 Haven't you talked with people who travel? Don't you know the reports they bring back?
30 On the day God is angry and punishes, it is the wicked who are always spared.
31 There is no one to accuse the wicked or pay them back for all they have done.
32 When they are carried to the graveyard, to their well-guarded tombs,
33 thousands join the funeral procession, and even the earth lies gently on their bodies.
34 And you! You try to comfort me with nonsense! Every answer you give is a lie!
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.