⁷ Why do the wicked live on,
    growing old and increasing in power?^(A)
8 They see their children established around them,
    their offspring before their eyes.^(B)
9 Their homes are safe and free from fear;^(C)
    the rod of God is not on them.^(D)
10 Their bulls never fail to breed;
    their cows calve and do not miscarry.^(E)
11 They send forth their children as a flock;^(F)
    their little ones dance about.
¹² They sing to the music of timbrel and lyre;^(G)
    they make merry to the sound of the pipe.^(H)
13 They spend their years in prosperity^(I)
    and go down to the grave^(J) in peace.^[a](K)

¹⁷ “Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?^(A)
    How often does calamity^(B) come upon them,
    the fate God allots in his anger?^(C)
18 How often are they like straw before the wind,
    like chaff^(D) swept away^(E) by a gale?^(F)

²⁸ You say, ‘Where now is the house of the great,^(A)
    the tents where the wicked lived?’^(B)
29 Have you never questioned those who travel?
    Have you paid no regard to their accounts—
³⁰ that the wicked are spared from the day of calamity,^(C)
    that they are delivered from^[a] the day of wrath?^(D)
31 Who denounces their conduct to their face?
    Who repays them for what they have done?^(E)
32 They are carried to the grave,
    and watch is kept over their tombs.^(F)
33 The soil in the valley is sweet to them;^(G)
    everyone follows after them,
    and a countless throng goes^[b] before them.^(H)

³⁴ “So how can you console me^(I) with your nonsense?
    Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!”^(J)