The Book of Job (WEB)

21: 1Then Job answered,

 ^21:2"Listen diligently to my speech.
      Let this be your consolation.

 ^21:3Allow me, and I also will speak;
      After I have spoken, mock on.

 ^21:4As for me, is my complaint to man?
      Why shouldn't I be impatient?

 ^21:5Look at me, and be astonished.
      Lay your hand on your mouth.

 ^21:6When I remember, I am troubled.
      Horror takes hold of my flesh.

  ^21:7"Why do the wicked live,
      Become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?

 ^21:8Their child is established with them in their sight,
      Their offspring before their eyes.

 ^21:9Their houses are safe from fear,
      Neither is the rod of God upon them.

 ^21:10Their bulls breed without fail.
      Their cows calve, and don't miscarry.

 ^21:11They send forth their little ones like a flock.
      Their children dance.

 ^21:12They sing to the tambourine and harp,
      And rejoice at the sound of the pipe.

 ^21:13They spend their days in prosperity.
      In an instant they go down to Sheol.

 ^21:14They tell God, 'Depart from us,
      For we don't want to know about your ways.

 ^21:15What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
      What profit should we have, if we pray to him?'

 ^21:16Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand:
      The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

  ^21:17"How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?
      That their calamity comes on them?
      That God distributes sorrows in his anger?

 ^21:18That they are as stubble before the wind,
      As chaff that the storm carries away?

 ^21:19You say, 'God lays up his iniquity for his children.'
      Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.

 ^21:20Let his own eyes see his destruction.
      Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

 ^21:21For what does he care for his house after him,
      When the number of his months is cut off?

  ^21:22"Shall any teach God knowledge,
      Seeing he judges those who are high?

 ^21:23One dies in his full strength,
      Being wholly at ease and quiet.

 ^21:24His pails are full of milk.
      The marrow of his bones is moistened.

 ^21:25Another dies in bitterness of soul,
      And never tastes of good.

 ^21:26They lie down alike in the dust,
      The worm covers them.

  ^21:27"Behold, I know your thoughts,
      The devices with which you would wrong me.

 ^21:28For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince?
      Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?'

 ^21:29Haven't you asked wayfaring men?
      Don't you know their evidences,

 ^21:30That the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity?
      That they are led forth to the day of wrath?

 ^21:31Who shall declare his way to his face?
      Who shall repay him what he has done?

 ^21:32Yet shall he be borne to the grave,
      Men shall keep watch over the tomb.

 ^21:33The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him.
      All men shall draw after him,
      As there were innumerable before him.

 ^21:34So how can you comfort me with nonsense,
      Seeing that in your answers there remains only falsehood?"

World English Bible