Job 21

¹Then Job answered, and said:

²Hear, I beseech you, my words, and do penance.

³Suffer me, and I will speak, and after, if you please, laugh at my words.

⁴Is my debate against man, that I should not have just reason to be troubled?

⁵Hearken to me and be astonished, and lay your finger on your mouth.

⁶As for me, when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.

⁷Why then do the wicked live, are they advanced, and strengthened with riches?

⁸Their seed continueth before them, a multitude of kinsmen, and of children’s children in their sight.

⁹Their houses are secure and peaceable, and the rod of God is not upon them.

¹⁰Their cattle have conceived, and failed not: their cow has calved, and is not deprived of her fruit.

¹¹Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children dance and play.

¹²They take the timbrel, and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.

¹³They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell.

¹⁴Who have said to God: Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

¹⁵Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what doth it profit us if we pray to him?

Yet because their good things are not in their hand, may the counsel of the wicked be far from me.