Job 21:4-18

English Standard Version

⁴ As for me, is my ^(A)complaint against man?
    Why should I not be impatient?
⁵ Look at me and be appalled,
    and ^(B)lay your hand over your mouth.
⁶ When I remember, I am dismayed,
    and shuddering seizes my flesh.
^7 (C)Why do the wicked live,
    reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
⁸ Their ^(D)offspring are established in their presence,
    and their descendants before their eyes.
⁹ Their houses are ^(E)safe from fear,
    and ^(F)no rod of God is upon them.
¹⁰ Their bull breeds without fail;
    their cow calves and ^(G)does not miscarry.
¹¹ They send out their ^(H)little boys like a flock,
    and their children dance.
¹² They sing to ^(I)the tambourine and ^(J)the lyre
    and rejoice to the sound of ^(K)the pipe.
¹³ They ^(L)spend their days in prosperity,
    and in ^(M)peace they go down to ^(N)Sheol.
¹⁴ They say to God, ^(O)‘Depart from us!
    We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.
^15 (P)What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
    And what ^(Q)profit do we get if we pray to him?’
¹⁶ Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?
    ^(R)The counsel of the wicked is far from me.