The Reading
Job 21
Then Job answered and said,
"Listen carefully to my words,
and let this be your consolation.
Bear with me, and I myself will speak;
then after my speaking you can mock.
As for me, is my complaint for human beings?
And if so, why cannot I be impatient?
Turn to me and be appalled,
and place your hand on your mouth.
And when I think of it, I am horrified,
and shuddering seizes my flesh.
"Why do the wicked live,
grow old, even grow mighty in power?
With them their offspring are established before them,
and their descendants before their eyes.
Their houses are safe without fear,
and the rod of God is not upon them.
His bull breeds and does not fail;
his cow calves and does not miscarry.
They send out their little ones like the flock,
and their children dance around.
They sing to the tambourine and lyre,
and they rejoice to the sound of the long flute.
They spend their days in prosperity,
and in peace they go down to Sheol.
And they say to God, 'Turn away from us,
for we do not desire to know your ways.
Who is Shaddai that we should serve him,
or what would we benefit when we plead with him?'
Look, their prosperity is not in their hands;
the schemes of the wicked are repugnant to me.
"How often is the lamp of the wicked put out,
and their disaster comes upon them?
He distributes pains in his anger.
How often are they like straw before the wind,
and like chaff that the storm carries away?
'God stores up his iniquity for his children'?
Then let him repay it to him that he may know.
Let his eyes see his decay,
and let him drink from the wrath of Shaddai,
for what does he care for his house after him,
when the number of his months is cut off?
Can anyone teach knowledge to God,
since he himself judges high ones?
This one dies in full prosperity,
completely at ease and secure.
His vats are full with milk
and the marrow of his bones is moist.
Yet another dies with a bitter inner self
and has not tasted prosperity.
They lie down together in the dust,
and maggots cover them.
"Look, I know your thoughts
and the schemes you devise against me.
For you say, 'Where is the nobleman's house,
and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?'
Do you not ask those traveling the roads,
and do you not take notice of their accounts?
Indeed, the wicked is spared from the day of disaster;
he is delivered from the day of wrath.
Who denounces his way to his face?
And who repays him for what he has done?
When he is brought to the grave,
then someone stands guard over the tomb.
The clods of the valley are sweet to him;
everyone will follow after him,
and before him they are innumerable.
So how will you comfort me with emptiness,
when fraud is left in your answers?"
Job 22
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
"Can a man be of use to God?
Yes, can the wise be of use to him?
Is it a pleasure to Shaddai if you are righteous,
or a gain if you make your ways blameless?
Does he reprove you because of your reverence
or enter into judgment with you?
Is not your wickedness great,
and there is no end to your iniquities?
"Indeed, you have required a pledge from your family for nothing,
and you have stripped off the clothes of the naked.
You have given no water for the weary to drink,
and you withheld food from the hungry.
And the land belongs to the man of power,
and the favored lives in it.
You have sent widows away empty-handed,
and the arms of orphans were crushed.
Therefore trapping nets are all around you,
and panic suddenly terrifies you,
or it is so dark you cannot see,
and a flood of water covers you.
"Is not God in the height of the heavens?
But see how lofty are the highest stars.
And you ask, 'What does God know?
Can he judge through deep gloom?
Thick clouds are a covering for him, so that he does not see;
and he walks about on the dome of heaven.'
Will you keep to the way of old
that the people of mischief have trod,