Chapter 21 (Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent)

Then Job answered: 
‘Listen carefully to my words,
   and let this be your consolation. 
Bear with me, and I will speak;
   then after I have spoken, mock on. 
As for me, is my complaint addressed to mortals?
   Why should I not be impatient? 
Look at me, and be appalled,
   and lay your hand upon your mouth. 
When I think of it I am dismayed,
   and shuddering seizes my flesh. 
Why do the wicked live on,
   reach old age, and grow mighty in power? 
Their children are established in their presence,
   and their offspring before their eyes. 
Their houses are safe from fear,
   and no rod of God is upon them. 
Their bull breeds without fail;
   their cow calves and never miscarries. 
They send out their little ones like a flock,
   and their children dance around. 
They sing to the tambourine and the lyre,
   and rejoice to the sound of the pipe. 
They spend their days in prosperity,
   and in peace they go down to Sheol. 
They say to God, “Leave us alone!
   We do not desire to know your ways. 
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
   And what profit do we get if we pray to him?” 
Is not their prosperity indeed their own achievement?
   The plans of the wicked are repugnant to me. 

‘How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
   How often does calamity come upon them?
   How often does God distribute pains in his anger? 
How often are they like straw before the wind,
   and like chaff that the storm carries away? 
You say, “God stores up their iniquity for their children.”
   Let it be paid back to them, so that they may know it. 
Let their own eyes see their destruction,
   and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty. 
For what do they care for their household after them,
   when the number of their months is cut off? 
Will any teach God knowledge,
   seeing that he judges those that are on high? 
One dies in full prosperity,
   being wholly at ease and secure, 
his loins full of milk
   and the marrow of his bones moist. 
Another dies in bitterness of soul,
   never having tasted of good. 
They lie down alike in the dust,
   and the worms cover them. 

‘Oh, I know your thoughts,
   and your schemes to wrong me. 
For you say, “Where is the house of the prince?
   Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?” 
Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
   and do you not accept their testimony, 
that the wicked are spared on the day of calamity,
   and are rescued on the day of wrath? 
Who declares their way to their face,
   and who repays them for what they have done? 
When they are carried to the grave,
   a watch is kept over their tomb. 
The clods of the valley are sweet to them;
   everyone will follow after,
   and those who went before are innumerable. 
How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
   There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.’ 

Commentary

Musical Selection

Psalm 73. TRULY God is loving unto Israel: * even unto such as are of a clean heart.
2 Nevertheless, my feet were almost gone, * my treadings had well-nigh slipt.
3 And why? I was grieved at the wicked: * I do also see the ungodly in such prosperity.
4 For they are in no peril of death; * but are lusty and strong.
5 They come in no misfortune like other folk; * neither are they plagued like other men.
6 And this is the cause that they are so holden with pride, * and cruelty covereth them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell with fatness, * and they do even what they lust.
8 They corrupt other, and speak of wicked blasphemy; * their talking is against the Most High.
9 For they stretch forth their mouth unto the heaven, * and their tongue goeth through the world.
10 Therefore fall the people unto them, * and thereout suck they no small advantage.
11 Tush, say they, how should God perceive it? * is there knowledge in the Most High?
12 Lo, these are the ungodly, * these prosper in the world, and these have riches in possession:
13 And I said, Then have I cleansed my heart in vain, * and washed my hands in innocency.
14 All the day long have I been punished, * and chastened every morning.
15 Yea, and I had almost said even as they; * but lo, then I should have condemned the generation of thy children.
16 Then thought I to understand this; * but it was too hard for me,
17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God: * then understood I the end of these men;
18 Namely, how thou dost set them in slippery places, * and castest them down, and destroyest them.
19 O how suddenly do they consume, * perish, and come to a fearful end!
20 Yea, even like as a dream when one awaketh; * so shalt thou make their image to vanish out of the city.
21 Thus my heart was grieved, * and it went even through my reins.
22 So foolish was I, and ignorant, * even as it were a beast before thee.
23 Nevertheless, I am alway by thee; * for thou hast holden me by my right hand.
24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, * and after that receive me with glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? * and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee.
26 My flesh and my heart faileth; * but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
27 For lo, they that forsake thee shall perish; * thou hast destroyed all them that are unfaithful unto thee.
28 But it is good for me to hold me fast by God, to put my trust in the Lord GOD, * and to speak of all thy works in the gates of the daughter of Sion.

Collect

Do not forsake us, Lord, in this time of penance,
but by your grace
confirm your power within us
and renew our dedication to your holy service.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever. Amen.