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Job Replies: The Wicked Often Go Unpunished

21Then Job answered:
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.
⁴ As for me, is my complaint addressed to mortals?
   Why should I not be impatient?
⁵ Look at me, and be appalled,
   and lay your hand upon your mouth.
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?
⁸ Their children are established in their presence,
   and their offspring before their eyes.
⁹ Their houses are safe from fear,
   and no rod of God is upon them.
¹⁰ Their bull breeds without fail;
   their cow calves and never miscarries.
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.
¹³ They spend their days in prosperity,
   and in peace they go down to Sheol.
¹⁴ They say to God, “Leave us alone!
   We do not desire to know your ways.
¹⁵ What is the Almighty,^* that we should serve him?
   And what profit do we get if we pray to him?”
¹⁶ Is not their prosperity indeed their own achievement?^*
   The plans of the wicked are repugnant to me.