Job 21:7–18

⁷“Why do the wicked live,

grow old, even grow mighty in power?

⁸With them their offspring are established before them,^f

and their descendants before their eyes.

⁹Their houses are safe without fear,

and the rod of God is not upon them.

¹⁰His bull breeds and does not fail;

his cow calves and does not miscarry.

¹¹They send out their little ones like the flock,

and their children dance around.

¹²They sing^g to the tambourine and lyre,

and they rejoice to the sound of the long flute.

¹³They spend their days in prosperity,

and in peace they go down to Sheol.

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

for^h we do not desire to know your ways.

¹⁵Who is Shaddai that we should serve him,

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

¹⁶Look, their prosperity is not in their hands;

the schemes of the wicked are repugnant^j to me.

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

and their disaster comes upon them?

He^k distributes pains in his anger.

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

and like chaff that the storm carries away?