Job 21:4–18

4 As for me, is my complaint for human beings?

And if so, why cannot I be impatient?

5 Turn to me and be appalled,

and place your hand on your mouth.

6 And when I think of it, I am horrified,e

and shuddering seizes my flesh.

7 “Why do the wicked live,

grow old, even grow mighty in power?

8 With them their offspring are established ⌊before them⌋,f

and their descendants before their eyes.

9 Their houses are safe without fear,

and the rod of God is not upon them.

10 His bull breeds and does not fail;

his cow calves and does not miscarry.

11 They send out their little ones like the flock,

and their children dance around.

12 They ⌊sing⌋g to the tambourine and lyre,

and they rejoice to the sound of the long flute.

13 They spend their days in prosperity,

and in peace they go down to Sheol.

14 And they say to God, ‘Turn away from us,

forh we do not desire to know your ways.

15 Who is Shaddai that we should serve him,

ori what would we benefit when we plead with him?’

16 Look, their prosperity is not in their hands;

the schemes of the wicked are repugnantj to me.

17 “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out,

and their disaster comes upon them?

Hek distributes pains in his anger.

18 How often are they like straw ⌊before⌋l the wind,

and like chaff that the storm carries away?