Job 21

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¹Then Job answered and said: ²“Listen carefully to my speech, And let this be your consolation. ✦ ³Bear with me that I may speak, And after I have spoken, keep mocking. ✦ ⁴“As for me, is my complaint against man? And if it were, why should I not be impatient? ✦ ⁵Look at me and be astonished; Put your hand over your mouth. ✦ ⁶Even when I remember I am terrified, And trembling takes hold of my flesh. ✦ ⁷Why do the wicked live and become old, Yes, become mighty in power? ✦ ⁸Their descendants are established with them in their sight, And their offspring before their eyes. ✦ ⁹Their houses are safe from fear, Neither is the rod of God upon them. ✦ ¹⁰Their bull breeds without failure; Their cow calves without miscarriage. ✦ ¹¹They send forth their little ones like a flock, And their children dance. ✦ ¹²They sing to the tambourine and harp, And rejoice to the sound of the flute. ✦ ¹³They spend their days in wealth, And in a moment go down to the grave. ✦ ¹⁴Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us, For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways. ✦ ¹⁵Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?’ ✦ ¹⁶Indeed their prosperity is not in their hand; The counsel of the wicked is far from me. ✦ ¹⁷“How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their destruction come upon them, The sorrows God distributes in His anger? ✦ ¹⁸They are like straw before the wind, And like chaff that a storm carries away. ✦ ¹⁹They say, ‘God lays up one’s iniquity for his children’; Let Him recompense him, that he may know it. ✦ ²⁰Let his eyes see his destruction, And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. ✦ ²¹For what does he care about his household after him, When the number of his months is cut in half? ✦ ²²“Cananyone teach God knowledge, Since He judges those on high? ✦ ²³One dies in his full strength, Being wholly at ease and secure; ✦ ²⁴His pails are full of milk, And the marrow of his bones is moist. ✦ ²⁵Another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, Never having eaten with pleasure. ✦ ²⁶They lie down alike in the dust, And worms cover them. ✦ ²⁷“Look, I know your thoughts, And the schemes with which you would wrong me. ✦ ²⁸For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? And where is the tent, The dwelling place of the wicked?’ ✦ ²⁹Have you not asked those who travel the road? And do you not know their signs? ✦ ³⁰For the wicked are reserved for the day of doom; They shall be brought out on the day of wrath. ✦ ³¹Who condemns his way to his face? And who repays him for what he has done? ✦ ³²Yet he shall be brought to the grave, And a vigil kept over the tomb. ✦ ³³The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him; Everyone shall follow him, As countless have gone before him. ✦ ³⁴How then can you comfort me with empty words, Since falsehood remains in your answers?” ✦

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Where this chapter connects

Job 20 ·9 Luke 16 ·6 Ps 73 ·5 Job 18 ·5 Job 15 ·5 Job 13 ·5 Ps 49 ·4 Job 16 ·4

Christ at the center

Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.

How Job 21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Job 21YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Job 21David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Job 21Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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