Job 21:1-15 ▼

1 Then Job answered:

2 Pay close attention to my words; let this be the consolation you offer.

3 Bear with me while I speak; then after I have spoken, you may continue mocking.

4 As for me, is my complaint against a human being? Then why shouldn’t I be impatient?

5 Look at me and shudder; put your hand over your mouth.

6 When I think about it, I am terrified and my body trembles in horror.

7 Why do the wicked continue to live, growing old and becoming powerful?

8 Their children are established while they are still alive, and their descendants, before their eyes.

9 Their homes are secure and free of fear; no rod from God strikes them.

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.

13 They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace.

14 Yet they say to God, “Leave us alone! We don’t want to know your ways.

15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him, and what will we gain by pleading with him? ”