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As for me, is my complaint to man?
    Why shouldn’t I be impatient?
Look at me, and be astonished.
    Lay your hand on your mouth.
When I remember, I am troubled.
    Horror takes hold of my flesh.

“Why do the wicked live,
    become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?
Their child is established with them in their sight,
    their offspring before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear,
    neither is the rod of God upon them.
10 Their bulls breed without fail.
    Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.
11 They send out their little ones like a flock.
    Their children dance.
12 They sing to the tambourine and harp,
    and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
13 They spend their days in prosperity.
    In an instant they go down to Sheol.[a]
14 They tell God, ‘Depart from us,
    for we don’t want to know about your ways.
15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
    What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’
16 Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand.
    The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

17 “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out,
    that their calamity comes on them,
    that God distributes sorrows in his anger?
18 How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind,
    as chaff that the storm carries away?

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Footnotes

  1. 21:13 Sheol is the place of the dead.

As for me, is my complaint(A) against a human being?
Then why shouldn’t I be impatient?
Look at me and shudder;(B)
put your hand over your mouth.(C)
When I think about it, I am terrified
and my body trembles(D) in horror.
Why do the wicked continue to live,
growing old and becoming powerful?
Their children are established while they are still alive,[a]
and their descendants, before their eyes.
Their homes are secure and free of fear;(E)
no rod from God strikes them.(F)
10 Their bulls breed without fail;
their cows calve and do not miscarry.
11 They let their little ones run around like lambs;
their children skip about,
12 singing to the tambourine and lyre
and rejoicing at the sound of the flute.(G)
13 They spend[b] their days in prosperity(H)
and go down to Sheol in peace.
14 Yet they say to God, “Leave us alone!
We don’t want to know your ways.(I)
15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him,
and what will we gain by pleading with him?” (J)
16 But their prosperity is not of their own doing.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me!(K)

17 How often is the lamp(L) of the wicked put out?
Does disaster[c] come on them?
Does he apportion destruction in his anger?
18 Are they like straw before the wind,
like chaff(M) a storm sweeps away?

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Footnotes

  1. 21:8 Lit established before them with them
  2. 21:13 Alt Hb tradition reads fully enjoy
  3. 21:17 Lit their disaster