Job 21:1-16

1Then Job answered:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10Their bulls breed without fail; their cows calve and do not miscarry.

11They let their little ones run around like lambs; their children skip about,

12singing to the tambourine and lyre and rejoicing at the sound of the flute.

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

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

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

16But their prosperity is not of their own doing. The counsel of the wicked is far from me!