Then Job answered and said,
Hear diligently my speech;
And let this be your consolations.
Suffer me, and I also will speak;
And after that I have spoken, {Or, thou shall mock}mock on.
As for me, is my complaint {Or, of}to man?
And why should I not be impatient?
{Hebrew: Look unto me.}Mark me, and be astonished,
And lay your hand upon your mouth.
Even when I remember I am troubled,
And horror taketh hold on my flesh.
Wherefore do the wicked live,
Become old, yea, wax mighty in power?
Their seed is established with them in their sight,
And their offspring before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear,
Neither is the rod of God upon them.
Their bull gendereth, and faileth not;
Their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.
They send forth their little ones like a flock,
And their children dance.
They {Hebrew: lift up the voice.}sing to the timbrel and harp,
And rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
They spend their days in prosperity,
And in a moment they go down to Sheol.
And they say unto God, Depart from us;
For we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
And what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?
{Or, Ye say, Lo &c.}Lo, their prosperity is not in their hand:
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
{Or, How oft is the lamp of the wicked put out, And how oft cometh their calamity upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger. They are as stubble…away.}How oft is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?
That their calamity cometh upon them?
That God distributeth sorrows in his anger?
That they are as stubble before the wind,
And as chaff that the storm carrieth away?
{Or, God layeth up his iniquity for his children: He rewardeth him, and he shall know it. His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink &c.}Ye say, God layeth up his iniquity for his children.
Let him recompense it unto himself, that he may know it:
Let his own eyes see his destruction,
And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
For what careth he for his house after him,
When the number of his months is cut off?
Shall any teach God knowledge,
Seeing he judgeth those that are high?
One dieth in his full strength,
Being wholly at ease and quiet:
His pails are full of milk,
And the marrow of his bones is moistened.
And another dieth in bitterness of soul,
And never tasteth of good.
They lie down alike in the dust,
And the worm covereth them.
Behold, I know your thoughts,
And the devices wherewith ye would wrong me.
For ye say, Where is the house of the prince?
And where is the tent wherein the wicked dwelt?
Have ye not asked wayfaring men?
And do ye not know their evidences,
That the evil man is {Or, spared in &c.}reserved to the day of calamity?
That they are {Or, led away in &c.}led forth to the day of wrath?
Who shall declare his way to his face?
And who shall repay him what he hath done?
{Or, Moreover he is borne to the grave, And keepth watch over his tomb. The clots of the valley are sweet unto him; And all men draw &c.}Yet shall he be borne to the grave,
And men shall keep watch over the tomb.
The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him,
And all men shall draw after him,
As there were innumerable before him.
How then comfort ye me {Or, with vanity}in vain,
Seeing in your answers there remaineth only {Or, faithlessness}falsehood?
Querverweise zu Hiob 21,18 Hiob 21,18
Wilt thou harass a driven leaf?And wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?
And in the greatness of thine excellency thou overthrowest them that rise up against thee:Thou sendest forth thy wrath, it consumeth them as stubble.
The wicked are not so,But are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Let them be as chaff before the wind,And the angel of Jehovah driving them on.
O my God, make them like the whirling dust;As stubble before the wind.
Therefore as the tongue of fire devoureth the stubble, and as the dry grass sinketh down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have rejected the {Or, teaching}law of Jehovah of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but he shall rebuke {Hebrew: him.}them, and {Hebrew: he.}they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm.
But the multitude of thy {Hebrew: strangers.}foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be in an instant suddenly.
{Or, Scarce are they planted, scarce are they sown, scarce hath their stock taken root in the earth, when he bloweth upon them &c.}Yea, they have not been planted; yea, they have not been sown; yea, their stock hath not taken root in the earth: moreover he bloweth upon them, and they wither, and the whirlwind taketh them away as stubble.
Behold, I have made thee to be a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
Thou shalt winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them; and thou shalt rejoice in Jehovah, thou shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore will I scatter them, as the stubble that passeth away, {Or, unto}by the wind of the wilderness.
Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the dew that passeth early away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing-floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.
For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed {Or, as stubble fully dry}utterly as dry stubble.
whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing-floor; and he will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.