21:17 “How often is the lamp of the wicked extinguished?
How often does their misfortune come upon them?
How often does God apportion pain to them in his anger?
21:18 How often are they like straw before the wind,
and like chaff swept away by a whirlwind?
21:19 You may say, ‘God stores up a man’s punishment for his children!’
Instead let him repay the man himself
so that he may know it!
21:20 Let his own eyes see his destruction;
let him drink of the anger of the Almighty.
21:21 For what is his interest in his home
after his death,
when the number of his months
has been broken off?
21:22 Can anyone teach God knowledge,
since he judges those that are on high?
21:23 “One man dies in his full vigor,
completely secure and prosperous,
21:24 his body well nourished,
and the marrow of his bones moist.
21:25 And another man dies in bitterness of soul,
never having tasted anything good.
21:26 Together they lie down in the dust,
and worms cover over them both.
21:27 “Yes, I know what you are thinking,
the schemes by which you would wrong me.
21:28 For you say,
‘Where now is the nobleman’s house,
and where are the tents in which the wicked lived?’
21:29 Have you never questioned those who travel the roads?
Do you not recognize their accounts –
21:30 that the evil man is spared
from the day of his misfortune,
that he is delivered
from the day of God’s wrath?
21:31 No one denounces his conduct to his face;
no one repays him for what he has done.
21:32 And when he is carried to the tombs,
and watch is kept over the funeral mound,
21:33 The clods of the torrent valley are sweet to him;
behind him everybody follows in procession,
and before him goes a countless throng.
21:34 So how can you console me with your futile words?
Nothing is left of your answers but deception!”