The Book of Job
Chapter 21
1 – Then Job answered, and said:
2 – Hear, I beseech you, my words, and do penance.
3 – Suffer me, and I will speak, and after, if you please, laugh at my words.
4 – Is my debate against man, that I should not have just reason to be troubled?
5 – Hearken to me and be astonished, and lay your finger on your mouth.
6 – As for me, when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.
7 – Why then do the wicked live, are they advanced, and strengthened with riches?
8 – Their seed continueth before them, a multitude of kinsmen, and of children’s children in their sight.
9 – Their houses are secure and peaceable, and the rod of God is not upon them.
10 – Their cattle have conceived, and failed not: their cow has calved, and is not deprived of her fruit.
11 – Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children dance and play.
12 – They take the timbrel, and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.
13 – They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell.
14 – Who have said to God: Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
15 – Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what doth it profit us if we pray to him?
16 – Yet because their good things are not in their hand, may the counsel of the wicked be far from me.
17 – How often shall the lamp of the wicked be put out, and a deluge come upon them, and he shall distribute the sorrows of his wrath?
18 – They shall be as chaff before the face of the wind, and as ashes which the whirlwind scattereth.
19 – God shall lay up the sorrow of the father for his children: and when he shall repay, then shall he know.
20 – His eyes shall see his own destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 – For what is it to him what befalleth his house after him: and if the number of his months be diminished by one half?
22 – Shall any one teach God knowledge, who judgeth those that are high?
23 – One man dieth strong, and hale, rich and happy.
24 – His bowels are full of fat, and his bones are moistened with marrow.
25 – But another dieth in bitterness of soul without any riches:
26 – And yet they shall sleep together in the dust, and worms shall cover them.
27 – Surely I know your thoughts, and your unjust judgments against me.
28 – For you say: Where is the house of the prince ? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?
29 – Ask any one of them that go by the way, and you shall perceive that he knoweth these same things.
30 – Because the wicked man is reserved to the day of destruction, and he shall be brought to the day of wrath.
31 – Who shall reprove his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?
32 – He shall be brought to the graves, and shall watch in the heap of the dead.
33 – He hath been acceptable to the gravel of Cocytus, and he shall draw every man after him, and there are innumerable before him.
34 – How then do ye comfort me in vain, whereas your answer is shewn to be repugnant to truth ?
The Catholic Bible Online. Scriptures are from The Douay Rheims Catholic Bible 1582-1610 a.d. Version In the Public Domain. The Douay Rheims Bible is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English undertaken by members of the English College, Douai in the service of the Catholic Church.