Job 21

¹Then Job answered,

²“Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.

³Allow me, and I also will speak. After I have spoken, mock on.

⁴As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn’t I be impatient?

⁵Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.

⁶When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.

⁷“Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?

⁸Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes.

⁹Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.

¹⁰Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.

¹¹They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.

¹²They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.

¹³They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.

¹⁴They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.

¹⁵What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’

¹⁶Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.