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.
17 “How often is it that (S)the lamp of the wicked is put out?
That their calamity comes upon them?
That God[a] distributes pains in his anger?
18 That they are like (T)straw before the wind,
and like (U)chaff that the storm carries away?
Footnotes
- Job 21:17 Hebrew he
Job 21:4-18
New Living Translation
4 “My complaint is with God, not with people.
I have good reason to be so impatient.
5 Look at me and be stunned.
Put your hand over your mouth in shock.
6 When I think about what I am saying, I shudder.
My body trembles.
7 “Why do the wicked prosper,
growing old and powerful?
8 They live to see their children grow up and settle down,
and they enjoy their grandchildren.
9 Their homes are safe from every fear,
and God does not punish them.
10 Their bulls never fail to breed.
Their cows bear calves and never miscarry.
11 They let their children frisk about like lambs.
Their little ones skip and dance.
12 They sing with tambourine and harp.
They celebrate to the sound of the flute.
13 They spend their days in prosperity,
then go down to the grave[a] in peace.
14 And yet they say to God, ‘Go away.
We want no part of you and your ways.
15 Who is the Almighty, and why should we obey him?
What good will it do us to pray?’
16 (They think their prosperity is of their own doing,
but I will have nothing to do with that kind of thinking.)
17 “Yet the light of the wicked never seems to be extinguished.
Do they ever have trouble?
Does God distribute sorrows to them in anger?
18 Are they driven before the wind like straw?
Are they carried away by the storm like chaff?
Not at all!
Footnotes
- 21:13 Hebrew to Sheol.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
