Job 21:1-16

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

² “Listen carefully to my words,
    and let this be your consolation.
³ Bear with me, and I will speak;
    then after I have spoken, mock on.^(A)
4 As for me, is my complaint addressed to mortals?
    Why should I not be impatient?^(B)
5 Look at me and be appalled,
    and lay your hand upon your mouth.^(C)
6 When I think of it I am dismayed,
    and shuddering seizes my flesh.
⁷ Why do the wicked live on,
    reach old age, and grow mighty in power?^(D)
8 Their children are established in their presence
    and their offspring before their eyes.^(E)
9 Their houses are safe from fear,
    and no rod of God is upon them.^(F)
10 Their bull breeds without fail;
    their cow calves and never miscarries.^(G)
11 They send out their little ones like a flock,
    and their children dance around.
¹² They sing to the tambourine and the lyre
    and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.^(H)
13 They spend their days in prosperity,
    and in peace they go down to Sheol.^(I)
14 They say to God, ‘Leave us alone!
    We do not desire to know your ways.^(J)
15 What is the Almighty,^[a] that we should serve him?
    And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’^(K)
16 Is not their prosperity indeed their own achievement?^[b]
    The plans of the wicked are repugnant to me.^(L)