The Dialogues between Job and his Friends. The Second Cycle

Job 20–21 (selections)

ca. 1200–332 BCE

Chapter 20

¹Zophar the Naamathite said in reply: [ . . . ]

⁴Do you not know this, that from time immemorial,

Since man was set on earth,

⁵The joy of the wicked has been brief,

The happiness of the impious, fleeting?

⁶Though he grows as high as the sky,

His head reaching the clouds,

⁷He perishes forever, like his dung;

Those who saw him will say, “Where is he?”

⁸He flies away like a dream and cannot be found;

He is banished like a night vision. [ . . . ]

²⁷Heaven will expose his iniquity;

Earth will rise up against him.

²⁸His household will be cast forth by a flood,

Spilled out on the day of His wrath.

²⁹This is the wicked man’s portion from God,

The lot God has ordained for him.

Chapter 21

¹Job said in reply:

²Listen well to what I say,

And let that be your consolation. [ . . . ]

⁷Why do the wicked live on,

Prosper and grow wealthy?

⁸Their children are with them always,

And they see their children’s children.

⁹Their homes are secure, without fear;

They do not feel the rod of God.

¹⁰Their bull breeds and does not fail;

Their cow calves and never miscarries;

¹¹They let their infants run loose like sheep,

And their children skip about.

¹²They sing to the music of timbrel and lute,

And revel to the tune of the pipe;

¹³They spend their days in happiness,

And go down to Sheol in peace.

¹⁴They say to God, “Leave us alone,

We do not want to learn Your ways;

¹⁵What is Shaddai that we should serve Him?

What will we gain by praying to Him?”

¹⁶Their happiness is not their own doing.

(The thoughts of the wicked are beyond me!)

¹⁷How seldom does the lamp of the wicked fail,

Does the calamity they deserve befall them,

Does He apportion [their] lot in anger!

¹⁸Let them become like straw in the wind,

Like chaff carried off by a storm.

¹⁹[You say,] “God is reserving his punishment for his sons”;

Let it be paid back to him that he may feel it,

²⁰Let his eyes see his ruin,

And let him drink the wrath of Shaddai!

²¹For what does he care about the fate of his family,

When his number of months runs out?

²²Can God be instructed in knowledge,

He who judges from such heights?

²³One man dies in robust health,

All tranquil and untroubled;

²⁴His pails are full of milk;

The marrow of his bones is juicy.

²⁵Another dies embittered,

Never having tasted happiness.

²⁶They both lie in the dust

And are covered with worms. [ . . . ]

³⁴Why then do you offer me empty consolation?

Of your replies only the perfidy remains.

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Credits

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

The Dialogues between Job and his Friends. The Second Cycle

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Credits

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The Dialogues between Job and his Friends. The Second Cycle

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Credits

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Ancient Corpus:

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