Job 21:4-18

Modern English Version

⁴ “As for me, is my complaint against man?
    And if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?
⁵ Look at me and be astonished,
    and put your hand over your mouth.
⁶ Even when I remember I am afraid,
    and trembling takes hold of my body.
⁷ Why do the wicked live and become old;
    yes, become mighty in power?
⁸ Their descendants are established with them in their sight,
    and their offspring before their eyes.
⁹ Their houses are safe from fear,
    nor is the rod of God upon them.
¹⁰ Their bull breeds without failure;
    their cow gives calves without miscarriage.
¹¹ They send forth their little ones like a flock,
    and their children dance.
¹² They take up the tambourine and harp
    and rejoice at the sound of the flute.
¹³ They spend their days in wealth,
    and in a moment go down to Sheol.
¹⁴ Therefore they say to God, ‘Depart from us,
    for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.
¹⁵ Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?
    And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?’
¹⁶ Indeed, their prosperity is not in their hand.
    The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁷ “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
    How often does their destruction come upon them,
    the sorrows God distributes in His anger?
¹⁸ They are like straw before the wind,
    and like chaff that a storm carries away.