Do I direct my talk to man? If it [a]were so, how should not my spirit be troubled?

Mark me, and be abashed, and lay your hand upon your [b]mouth.

Even when I remember, I am afraid, and fear taketh hold on my flesh.

Wherefore do the wicked [c]live, and wax old, and grow in wealth?

Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their generation before their eyes.

Their houses are peaceable without fear, and the rod of God is not upon them.

10 Their bullock gendereth, and faileth not: their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.

11 They send forth their children [d]like sheep, and their sons dance.

12 They take the tambourine and harp, and rejoice in the sound of the organs.

13 They spend their days in wealth, and suddenly [e]they go down to the grave.

14 They say also unto God, Depart from us: for we desire not the [f]knowledge of thy ways.

15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we should pray unto him?

16 Lo, their wealth is not in their [g]hand: therefore let the counsel of the wicked [h]be far from me.

17 How oft shall the candle of the wicked be put out and their destruction come upon them? he will divide their lives in his wrath.

18 They shall be as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.

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Footnotes

  1. Job 21:4 As though he would say, I do not talk with man but with God, who will not answer me, and therefore my mind must needs be troubled.
  2. Job 21:5 He chargeth them as though they were not able to comprehend this his feeling of God’s judgment, and exhorteth them therefore to silence.
  3. Job 21:7 Job proveth against his adversaries that God punisheth not straightways the wicked, but oft times giveth them long life, and prosperity: so that we must not judge God just or unjust by the things that appear to our eyes.
  4. Job 21:11 They have store of children, lusty and healthful, and in these points he answereth to that which Zophar alleged before.
  5. Job 21:13 Not being tormented with long sickness.
  6. Job 21:14 They desire nothing more than to be exempt from all subjection that they should bear to God: thus Job showeth his adversaries, that if they reason only by that which is seen by common experience, the wicked that hate God, are better dealt withal, than they that love him.
  7. Job 21:16 It is not their own, but God only lendeth it unto them.
  8. Job 21:16 God keep me from their prosperity.

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